4 ms·

The weird part is not that you made a blog post about this issue now. The weird part is that you didn't mention the 400 pound gorilla in the room. ("I've been

The weird part is not that you made a blog post about this issue now. The weird part is that you didn't mention the 400 pound gorilla in the room. ("I've been thinking about this for a long time, but it really hit home recently when...") To my mind, that's why the post seems odd or passive aggressive. (It's a relatively short post as well. It just feels clipped somehow. The reader inevitably says, "What's not here?")

mechanical_fish 17y ago
It may be difficult to remember now that Twitter is all the rage, but essayists often aim for that "timeless" quality. You want the essay to seem as relevant three years from now as it is today. The web has more than enough content that feels stale after a week. Better to aim for something with a slightly longer shelf life.
- pyre 17y ago
  Yea, but how is "my friend/business partner recently lost his entire blog due to poor backups, and it got me thinking..." not 'timeless?'
  - mattmanser 17y ago
    Not poor backups, poor restores. You're missing the point of the article!
    - oscardelben 17y ago
      It's also poor backup. They thought the backup was being done by their hosting company while in reality it was failing silently.
      - Periodic 17y ago
        A good backup is one that can be restored.
    - pyre 17y ago
      A poor backup becomes a poor restore, while a good backup isn't necessarily a good restore. It's like quibbling over whether I said, "his car was completely totaled in the race" rather than, "he didn't win the race." No one thinks that not crashing your car implies that you've won a race, but you can't win a race with a crashed car.
  - forensic 17y ago
    To be honest, I don't give a shit about his friend/business partner. But I do like his idea. So I appreciate that he omits pointless personal details and just sticks to the meat of the article. When a writer expects me to read a bunch of self-indulgent cliche boilerplate I usually hit the back button.
flogic 17y ago
It's generally better if you try to avoid putting your business partners or employees down in public.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
nollidge 17y ago
This doesn't make any sense. Unless you have some other reason to suspect there's animosity between them, why would you invent drama between the lines?
- mistermann 17y ago
  Check the URL in your browser....and the author of the article being discussed. Sufficient explanation for anything that will transpire here.

mechanical_fish 17y ago

It may be difficult to remember now that Twitter is all the rage, but essayists often aim for that "timeless" quality. You want the essay to seem as relevant three years from now as it is today. The web has more than enough content that feels stale after a week. Better to aim for something with a slightly longer shelf life.

pyre 17y ago
Yea, but how is "my friend/business partner recently lost his entire blog due to poor backups, and it got me thinking..." not 'timeless?'
- mattmanser 17y ago
  Not poor backups, poor restores. You're missing the point of the article!
  - oscardelben 17y ago
    It's also poor backup. They thought the backup was being done by their hosting company while in reality it was failing silently.
    - Periodic 17y ago
      A good backup is one that can be restored.
  - pyre 17y ago
    A poor backup becomes a poor restore, while a good backup isn't necessarily a good restore. It's like quibbling over whether I said, "his car was completely totaled in the race" rather than, "he didn't win the race." No one thinks that not crashing your car implies that you've won a race, but you can't win a race with a crashed car.
- forensic 17y ago
  To be honest, I don't give a shit about his friend/business partner. But I do like his idea. So I appreciate that he omits pointless personal details and just sticks to the meat of the article. When a writer expects me to read a bunch of self-indulgent cliche boilerplate I usually hit the back button.

flogic 17y ago

It's generally better if you try to avoid putting your business partners or employees down in public.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

nollidge 17y ago

This doesn't make any sense. Unless you have some other reason to suspect there's animosity between them, why would you invent drama between the lines?

mistermann 17y ago
Check the URL in your browser....and the author of the article being discussed. Sufficient explanation for anything that will transpire here.