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The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoOne of the most important lessons about writing that I ever learned was to make sure people could read what you wrote. Here is a screenshot of my browser window opened onto the article in question. http://www.penzba.co.uk/StevenPressfield.jpg http://www.penzba.co.uk/StevenPressfield.jpg It will be ironic if this is one of those occasions that my ISP fails to serve the page, but if you get a "forbidden" or similar, hit "Reload". So, for those of you who run web sites - what does your site look like in an older browser, and should you care? FWIW I could read the article if I selected all text (Ctrl-A).
- jacquesm 17y agoIt works fine for me and is actually quite good. Just to be sure I checked it in konqueror too (4.2.2) and it works there too.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoI can read it fine when I highlight the text. And the article is quite good - yes. I've up-mud it. My point remains. I'm actually technically fairly competent compared with most of my customers. If either of my companies served a web page like that, half my customers wouldn't be able to read it. Is that my problem?? Or theirs? It's my problem. If you have a web page, you need to decide where the cut-off is. The author here either doesn't know that his page doesn't render correctly, or doesn't care. Either way, if I were a customer, I'd be less than impressed. So the question remains: Can your customers read your web page(s)? (In your specific case, jacquesm, I know the answer is "yes")
- unalone 17y agoGive it another try. Sometimes loading a page doesn't work and refreshing fixes it. Also: With all respect, supporting Konqueror is really stretching support. It's got practically no market share, and isn't even the most popular Linux browser. I'm surprised it isn't working, though: I thought it ran WebKit, and so wouldn't mess up.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoLoaded three times, same result each time. I agree that it's infeasible to support all browsers, and mine, in particular, is almost certainly not worth supporting. In most other circumstances I wouldn't bother to say anything, but here I thought the observation was worth making. Not everyone sees your web site the way you do. How do you check/test?
- jacquesm 17y agoWe have lots of browsers on hand in virtual machines, every major change gets tested in everything we can lay our hands on, we also ask our users to report problems through the help desk, and we work with them to get rid of bugs. As for having every browser work with your site, sorry but that isn't always possible. There are finite resources for everything, and if you insist on using an out-of-the-ordinary setup with a miniscule portion of the users then you must surely agree that the minor discomforts of that are of your own choosing. Just like, for instance I will not support IE3, IE4 or Netscape 1.2 (and a whole host of other browsers that have met their end-of-life long ago) any more. I've been a long time user of Konqueror myself, but right now I wouldn't know of any real good reason to continue to use it, Mozilla/FF/Iceweasel or whatever it wants to be called is available just about everywhere for the price of a free download. Even Opera has a huge following compared to Konqueror, which is now below 0.08%, in spite of being the 'default' browser on a whole bunch of linux distros. Chances are you're one of very few people that has ever tried to load that page using Konqueror, and chances are that the problem lies in (your old version of) Konqueror, especially since a newer one displays the page correctly.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
- marcofloriano 17y agoWhat´s your browser ? Looks like Netscape ...
- jamesbritt 17y agoIt says "Konqueror" in the title area.
- maxwin 17y agoGeez! Just get another account and have your old email account forward emails to you.
- RiderOfGiraffes 17y agoIf that's a reply to me, I'm not sure I understand you. The page does not render in a readable fashion in my (only slightly) elderly browser. I'm not sure what that has to do with email. Have I missed your point? Could you expand on it a little? Thanks.
- zupatol 17y agoIt looks more like a reply to the guy who ran out of space in his gmail account. How did it get here? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850827 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850827
- logicalmind 17y agoGood question, a wormhole in the continuation mechanism? ;-)
- maxwin 17y agoSomehow my reply to a post about gmail gets here. I am not sure why
- codemonkey 17y agoMy project advisor once gave me a piece of advice that changed everything I've written since for the better. After apologizing for the forthcoming crudeness, she passed on this gem: You're writing "Mary was fucked by John." You /should/ be writing "John fucked Mary." I can say what I need to say in half the words now.
- swombat 17y agoPassive vs active voice is certainly useful, but it's only one of many, many bits of writing craft. If you want a whole lot more of those, I suggest Strunk & White: http://www.bartleby.com/141/ http://www.bartleby.com/141/
- talison 17y ago"On Writing Well" by Zinsser is also worthwhile: http://bit.ly/2wH4VC http://bit.ly/2wH4VC (link to Google Books)
- crux_ 17y agoGood as well: Politics & The English Language. (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm)
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Perceval 17y agoAs someone mired in academia, I absolutely love that piece by Orwell. It's a good reminder that the writing I'm surrounded by isn't the type of writing I should emulate. I keep a folder in my bookmarks of writing tips that I think are insightful. Here are a few: * Elmore Leonard: http://www.kabedford.com/archives/000013.html http://www.kabedford.com/archives/000013.html * Kurt Vonnegut: http://www.peterstekel.com/PDF-HTML/Kurt%20Vonnegut%20advice%20to%20writers.htm http://www.peterstekel.com/PDF-HTML/Kurt%20Vonnegut%20advice... * E.A. Poe: http://www.eapoe.org/works/ESSAYS/PHILCOMP.HTM http://www.eapoe.org/works/ESSAYS/PHILCOMP.HTM
- bk 17y ago"Have you ever noticed how other people's stuff is shit, and your own shit is stuff?" - George Carlin
- saurabh 17y agoAs much as I respect George, I think its reverse applies to us hackers "Have you ever noticed how other people's shit is stuff, and your own stuff is shit?"
- cema 17y agoUh, but that's only because computers make us humble. (Or modest. Not sure which one.)
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- Adam503 17y agoGeorge Carlin had enough money to have stuff. I have shit.
- edw519 17y agoHacker's Corollary: "The Most Important Programming Lesson I Ever Learned" Nobody wants to run your shit. Make it simple. Make it easy. Make it fun (to the extent that you can). Make it intuitive. Make it do exactly what needs to be done. Your user is too busy for anything else.
- tomjen2 17y agoPlease don't make it intuitive, I know everybody says it should be but that assumes that all software is made to please the casual user. The best software is made to please the expert user, and makes them many times more powerful that the average user.
- quizbiz 17y agoWhy can't powerful features be done in an intuitive fashion? Smart UI design will allow for that. The more typical argument is one of simplicity versus functionality. But if you choose functionality, why not put in the effort to make the features as easy to use as possible?
- flooha 17y agoI'm not a UI expert and definitely need to improve things with my site, but I've found that most non-tech users can't be bothered to do much of anything that requires a little thought. If you're not spoon feeding it to them, they don't want it. This is why drag and drop website creation is so successful.
- amutap 17y agoI find this argument completely incorrect... Was Google made for expert users? Were ipods made for expert users? Providing an interface which allows users to accomplish a complex task and in the process users know what they are doing is the essence of the whole ui.
- dkersten 17y agoThe expert user was a casual or novice user once too... If I find something unintuitive, then I will avoid using it. If I find something intuitive, then, provided its s\for a task I need to do, I willo use it and become an "expert user". I think software needs to be intuitive (or, more importantly, intuitive to the target user), yet still cater for the expert power user by providing shortcuts/macros/scripts/keyboard commands/advanced features etc.
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago851 words to convey the message, "No one wants to read your shit"? Really?
- bdr 17y agoHey, that's a fun game! Ryan, 14 words to convey the message, "That was boring"? Really?!??!
- kingkawn 17y ago15 words to say "loser?" Really??!?!
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoI'm not saying it's boring; I'm saying it's needlessly verbose.
- modoc 17y agoBird by Bird, by Anne Lamott is an amazing book about writing. It's funny, very helpful, inspiring, etc... http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254253623&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp...
- wallflower 17y agoRepost but Elizabeth Gilbert wrote the best treatise on writing (and by extension, creative expression) I think I've ever read. Here are some excerpts - I believe its worthwile reading the entire essay many times: "I often hear people say, 'I’m not good enough yet to be published.' That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents. They all employ young people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren’t good enough yet: LET THEM DO IT. Don’t pre-reject yourself. That’s their job, not yours. Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the rest." "There are heaps of books out there on How To Get Published. Often people find the information in these books contradictory. My feeling is -- of COURSE the information is contradictory. Because, frankly, nobody knows anything. Nobody can tell you how to succeed at writing (even if they write a book called 'How To Succeed At Writing') because there is no WAY; there are, instead, many ways. Everyone I know who managed to become a writer did it differently. sometimes radically differently. " http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/writing.htm http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/writing.htm
- MaysonL 17y agoRobert Heinlein's "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction" ranks pretty highly up there. Starts off with the old Kipling quote: There are nine and sixty ways Of constructing tribal lays And every single one of them is right! and ends up with his rules (which he describes as "business habit") 1. You must write. 2. You must finish what you write. 3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order. 4. You must put it on the market. 5. You must keep it on the market until it sells. I refrain from posting the Google Books link to the essay: it's much too long, and so is left as an exercise for the reader.
- bootload 17y ago"... 1) Reduce your message to its simplest, clearest, easiest-to-understand form. 2) Make it fun. Or sexy or interesting or informative ..." For anyone who wants to read an antidote to this drivel, try Orwell, "Politics and the English Language" ~ http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/patee.html
- hubb 17y agogood read. it's a lesson that's emphasized by many successful authors, in addition to every writing professor i've had. a great orwell essay with similar messages: http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Language/0.html http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Langua...
- emilis_info 17y agoI think, this is really the most important writing lesson: Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for October 1, 1997: How Users Read on the Web http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html