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Show HN: Using GitHub to tackle Ray Bradbury's 1,000 Nights Challenge

64 points by kyledreger 13y ago

goldfeld 13y ago
Since "Ray Bradbury" is the only hint as to what this could be (unless you're familiar with the mentioned challenge), and since I often look to comments to get a feel for the link's subject before even following it, I'll just say what a great idea this is: that you become a "collector of metaphors" (love this) by reading one short story, one poem and one essay every night before sleep, which is a great time to do it because your brain can then best absorb the new info while you sleep. Arguably though, I'd place the time before the first sleep and the second sleep as even better (for those not aware, called segmented sleep and supposedly a natural thing for humans before electricity), since you have a couple hours still to comtemplate and/or get inspired by the material while in a quasi-meditative state. I got to sleep this way during a few weeks and I've easily written my best fiction passages in these hours, they came so naturally and effortlessly, like my mind and focus were sharp as a razor whereas normally I'm all around the place (as you can see in this comment.)
- girvo 13y ago
  The whole segmented thing sounded interesting to me, so I did some research and it really does seem like a "real thing"... And for me, it truly is a wonder when it happens. I feel the most refreshed I could possibly feel, and (TMI warning) making love between the two sleeps is absolutely amazing. I've gone out of my way to remove blue light from my living areas for this reason, and it has helped a lot. The best part is, I manage my depression much better now that my sleep cycle and sleep hygiene is improved. /offtopic
nzp 13y ago
I never knew about the challenge, now I know, so thanks! Great idea! I was wondering for a few moments what's the point of GitHub here. My first thought for such a thing would be a wiki (I know, I'm so 2000s). But I guess GitHub is simply there, capable, and with readily available contributors, opposed to some random wiki site?
- kyledreger 13y ago
  For me, GitHub was the easiest thing to get up and running. Another nice addition later on will be GitHub Pages -- a website generated off of the contents of the repository, which will help broaden the reach of this project beyond those who can navigate GitHub. Once I get 100 days worth of content, I'll buy a domain and make it look pretty.
kyledreger 13y ago
To clarify what exactly the 1,000 Nights Challenge is: In 2001, Ray Bradbury gave a speech at the University of California where he encouraged young writers to read three things every night: - One short story (Dahl, Hemingway, Matheson, Cheever, Kneale, Collier), Warton, Irving) - One poem (Shakespeare, Frost, Pope) - One essay (Huxley, Eiseley) Bradbury's goal is to make you into a collector of the metaphor -- filling your head with thoughts, theories, and ideas before bed, rather than completing another level in Angry Birds. This repository is to help me 1.) follow Bradbury's advice and 2.) create a list of reading material to fill those 1,000 nights.
k-mcgrady 13y ago
I like this idea but how long does it roughly take to read a short story, poem and essay? It sounds like a significant amount of time every night.
- kyledreger 13y ago
  The longest short story I've seen so far has been around 5,000 words, which will take about 38 minutes to read [1]. Most of the poems are very short, and the essays are quite varied. Assuming you don't have two hours to dedicate to reading each night, you could always still use the guide but break one night's content into two nights worth of reading. Provided that you read something each night, I'd count the endeavor as a success. [1] - http://www.speechinminutes.com/ http://www.speechinminutes.com/
johndavidback 13y ago
If you flesh this out with 1,000 nights... First off: Awesome! That's a hell of a lot of grind. Secondly, I'll totally do it. Or at least try it. Would be cool to see a simple web app that let you check them off as you went. The preset list of them, that is. So, if you put together this list also in some consumable format like JSON, I'll write the app to read this list format and record progress. Go!
- agilebyte 13y ago
  GitHub allows you to check things off in their GitHub Flavored Markdown. https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#task-lists https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#ta...
- hablahaha 13y ago
  My thoughts exactly! This is a great resource, and the audience is probably very big (but the cross section who also use Github is probably not quite so big). I'd love to help as well.
gruseom 13y ago
Limiting myself to one each: Short stories – Flannery O'Connor Poems – Edward Thomas Essays – George Orwell
- kyledreger 13y ago
  Thanks, I'll add them to the list of resources we have in the repository.
tbirdz 13y ago
Perhaps obvious, but why not add some of Ray Bradbury's own short stories to the list?
jlukecarlson 13y ago
Would you ever consider putting the text of these pieces of literature into the repo? There is always the chance that links break and all that.
- kyledreger 13y ago
  We're actually discussing what structure the entire repo should take here: [1]. What I think I'll do is create directories for each type of content (short story, poem, essay) and then another directory within those for each author. Finally, inside each author's folder will be individual .txt files, named after the title of the piece, which (without violating copyright) will hold the actual text. If we can't put the full text into the file, a single line with a link to the best online version will be used. [1] - https://github.com/kyledreger/1000-nights/issues/3 https://github.com/kyledreger/1000-nights/issues/3
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
I really enjoy O'Henry's short stories.
IvyMike 13y ago
- David Foster Wallace's great essays fill 25 nights: http://tetw.org/David_Foster_Wallace http://tetw.org/David_Foster_Wallace - Billy Collins was on Stephen Colbert not too long ago, and when I looked him up, it turns out his poetry is awesome: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flames/ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flames/ - I like Bukowski the poet. (Bukowski the person is kind of an asshole) http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-aliens/ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-aliens/ - I like to find new essays daily at Longform. This could probably sustain you forever. http://longform.org/ http://longform.org/
- kyledreger 13y ago
  These are really fantastic, thank you.
ars 13y ago
Isn't this basically what the Arabian Nights book is? 1001 stories and poems to read before bed.

64 points by kyledreger 13y ago

Since "Ray Bradbury" is the only hint as to what this could be (unless you're familiar with the mentioned challenge), and since I often look to comments to get a feel for the link's subject before even following it, I'll just say what a great idea this is: that you become a "collector of metaphors" (love this) by reading one short story, one poem and one essay every night before sleep, which is a great time to do it because your brain can then best absorb the new info while you sleep. Arguably though, I'd place the time before the first sleep and the second sleep as even better (for those not aware, called segmented sleep and supposedly a natural thing for humans before electricity), since you have a couple hours still to comtemplate and/or get inspired by the material while in a quasi-meditative state. I got to sleep this way during a few weeks and I've easily written my best fiction passages in these hours, they came so naturally and effortlessly, like my mind and focus were sharp as a razor whereas normally I'm all around the place (as you can see in this comment.)

girvo 13y ago
The whole segmented thing sounded interesting to me, so I did some research and it really does seem like a "real thing"... And for me, it truly is a wonder when it happens. I feel the most refreshed I could possibly feel, and (TMI warning) making love between the two sleeps is absolutely amazing. I've gone out of my way to remove blue light from my living areas for this reason, and it has helped a lot. The best part is, I manage my depression much better now that my sleep cycle and sleep hygiene is improved. /offtopic

nzp 13y ago

I never knew about the challenge, now I know, so thanks! Great idea! I was wondering for a few moments what's the point of GitHub here. My first thought for such a thing would be a wiki (I know, I'm so 2000s). But I guess GitHub is simply there, capable, and with readily available contributors, opposed to some random wiki site?

kyledreger 13y ago
For me, GitHub was the easiest thing to get up and running. Another nice addition later on will be GitHub Pages -- a website generated off of the contents of the repository, which will help broaden the reach of this project beyond those who can navigate GitHub. Once I get 100 days worth of content, I'll buy a domain and make it look pretty.

kyledreger 13y ago

To clarify what exactly the 1,000 Nights Challenge is: In 2001, Ray Bradbury gave a speech at the University of California where he encouraged young writers to read three things every night: - One short story (Dahl, Hemingway, Matheson, Cheever, Kneale, Collier), Warton, Irving) - One poem (Shakespeare, Frost, Pope) - One essay (Huxley, Eiseley) Bradbury's goal is to make you into a collector of the metaphor -- filling your head with thoughts, theories, and ideas before bed, rather than completing another level in Angry Birds. This repository is to help me 1.) follow Bradbury's advice and 2.) create a list of reading material to fill those 1,000 nights.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

I like this idea but how long does it roughly take to read a short story, poem and essay? It sounds like a significant amount of time every night.

kyledreger 13y ago
The longest short story I've seen so far has been around 5,000 words, which will take about 38 minutes to read [1]. Most of the poems are very short, and the essays are quite varied. Assuming you don't have two hours to dedicate to reading each night, you could always still use the guide but break one night's content into two nights worth of reading. Provided that you read something each night, I'd count the endeavor as a success. [1] - http://www.speechinminutes.com/ http://www.speechinminutes.com/

johndavidback 13y ago

If you flesh this out with 1,000 nights... First off: Awesome! That's a hell of a lot of grind. Secondly, I'll totally do it. Or at least try it. Would be cool to see a simple web app that let you check them off as you went. The preset list of them, that is. So, if you put together this list also in some consumable format like JSON, I'll write the app to read this list format and record progress. Go!

agilebyte 13y ago
GitHub allows you to check things off in their GitHub Flavored Markdown. https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#task-lists https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#ta...
hablahaha 13y ago
My thoughts exactly! This is a great resource, and the audience is probably very big (but the cross section who also use Github is probably not quite so big). I'd love to help as well.

gruseom 13y ago

Limiting myself to one each: Short stories – Flannery O'Connor Poems – Edward Thomas Essays – George Orwell

kyledreger 13y ago
Thanks, I'll add them to the list of resources we have in the repository.

tbirdz 13y ago

Perhaps obvious, but why not add some of Ray Bradbury's own short stories to the list?

jlukecarlson 13y ago

Would you ever consider putting the text of these pieces of literature into the repo? There is always the chance that links break and all that.

kyledreger 13y ago
We're actually discussing what structure the entire repo should take here: [1]. What I think I'll do is create directories for each type of content (short story, poem, essay) and then another directory within those for each author. Finally, inside each author's folder will be individual .txt files, named after the title of the piece, which (without violating copyright) will hold the actual text. If we can't put the full text into the file, a single line with a link to the best online version will be used. [1] - https://github.com/kyledreger/1000-nights/issues/3 https://github.com/kyledreger/1000-nights/issues/3

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

I really enjoy O'Henry's short stories.

IvyMike 13y ago

- David Foster Wallace's great essays fill 25 nights: http://tetw.org/David_Foster_Wallace http://tetw.org/David_Foster_Wallace - Billy Collins was on Stephen Colbert not too long ago, and when I looked him up, it turns out his poetry is awesome: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flames/ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flames/ - I like Bukowski the poet. (Bukowski the person is kind of an asshole) http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-aliens/ http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-aliens/ - I like to find new essays daily at Longform. This could probably sustain you forever. http://longform.org/ http://longform.org/

kyledreger 13y ago
These are really fantastic, thank you.

ars 13y ago

Isn't this basically what the Arabian Nights book is? 1001 stories and poems to read before bed.