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Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

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Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#11

Post by edent »

The biggest con is that sometimes you'll be wrong. Embarrassingly so. It might be a prediction that was duff, a solution that was non-optimal, or an opinion that's so far out of mainstream it warns people off you.

The best way to manage that is to show people in private before you publish. That can be as simple as having a friend or partner check your spelling. Or it can be as complex as getting several people to sense-check your ideas and give you robust feedback.

The other big issue is that people can (deliberately?) misinterpret what you've written. Humans don't write in a formal, logical manner. So everything you write is open to a bad-faith actor trying to undermine you. So you have to make peace with the fact that you're not writing a thesis to be examined and that some people are just arseholes.

Life's too short to spend it worrying about what might go wrong. Take some sensible precautions and learn to live with the occasional public goof.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#12

Post by FigurativeVoid »

I am a huge proponent of journaling because it forces you to make your thoughts more solid and rigorous. All the benefits of journaling probably apply to 'thinking in public' as well. But the Hn discussions and blogs are very different genres with different conventions.

These are all off the top of my head. I may add more later.

PROS: improving communication and marketing skills, social interactions, receiving feedback, building an audience, finding like-minded peers, testing ideas outside of your own mind.

CONS:

You might have ideas that others deem incorrect or morally wrong. This could make your personal and professional life much more difficult.

Getting caught in the self-promotion and metrics rat race. Writing for yourself is good, but you can get lost in trying to grow.

Finding out that nobody wants to read what you have to say.

Too much outside influence.

Managing:

As far as managing it goes, most people have different systems. The one thing I would add is that you need to generate AND curate your thoughts. Remove posts you no longer believe. Remove content that is bad. Refresh older content. You can be transparent or not. Don't just pump out new stuff alone.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#13

Post by throw456 »

staktrace wrote: post #8

I've found that one of the more subtle cons to thinking in public is that you become more attached to the opinion you have expressed. I'm not sure if that's because you are forced to defend it more vigorously or just because it's "written down". But I do find that I'm less likely to change my mind on a particular topic after blogging about it.

This is why I comment only using throwaway accounts on all the forums I use.

I feel like I'm much less likely to get attached to an opinion if it's wedded only to an ephemeral identity that I will probably forget about entirely within a short timeframe.

I also much prefer the dynamic of having anonymous conversations with strangers.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#14

Post by taeric »

edent wrote: post #11

The biggest con is that sometimes you'll be wrong. Embarrassingly so. It might be a prediction that was duff, a solution that was non-optimal, or an opinion that's so far out of mainstream it warns people off you. The best way to manage that is to show people in private before you publish. That can be as simple as having a friend or partner check your spelling. Or it can be as complex as getting several people to sen…

I do wish more folks were both fearless to be hilariously wrong, and that folks allowed it more.

Instead, everything has to feel well rehearsed. It is exhausting to try and emulate. :(

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#15

Post by andirk »

I enjoy thinking/working/reading/writing in public. But please, if you bring your laptop to a coffee shop, tip the baristas $5-10 if you're there for a while! Even make a point like "hold $5 bill because I'm gonna be here a while thanks". It's nothing to you but will add up to something substantial for them watching you type away all day.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#16

Post by davnicwil »

One con certainly is being unprepared for and therefore discouraged by an unfortunate rule of the internet comment box: it tends to heavily skew toward disagreements and nitpicks with whatever you put out there.

If you don't account for this you'll come away with the impression that nobody gets value from the thoughts you've put out, when the reality may be the opposite.

Sites like HN with upvotes help a bit with balancing this signal, but it's still a bit disheartening at times. You have to consciously think about it and convince yourself it's the case, probably before even publishing, certainly before reading the comments!

If you're interested I wrote a blog post [0] covering aspects of this that you may enjoy (which went to the HN front page, so you can see the comments Vs upvotes on that post itself -- yep this is getting meta rather quickly :-)

[0] https://davnicwil.com/tips-for-making-writing-more-fun/

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#17

Post by bee_rider »

hgsgm wrote: post #9
tlb wrote: post #2

There are quite a few things that are probably true, but you can't say publicly without attracting a lot of unwanted angry attention. If your line of thinking approaches any of these topics, it makes it difficult to think through the issue in public.

Public can be anonymous (or anonymous enough if your thoughts are mild enough to not inspire a doxxing and get a harmful reaction if you are doxxed).

Pseudonymous is a fantastic word that describes lots of things nowadays, unfortunately eclipsed by its more assertive brother Anonymous.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#18

Post by Baeocystin »

I can't say it never happens, but I find it hard to imagine thinking in public to be a net benefit. Who you accept feedback from matters, and the reactionary frothers that are just there to screech outnumber everyone else in terms of posting volume.

The Socratic method requires a good-faith, cooperative approach in the participants, and that just doesn't happen on modern fora without strong moderation, which is a full-time job in and of itself. Otherwise the hecklers win.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#19

Post by vlunkr »

With regards to forum conversations specifically, one con is that you have no idea what type of people are talking to.

In real life you make all kinds of judgement calls before engaging in a conversation. For example: Do they actually have an informed opinion on the subject? Do you value their opinion on the subject? Can they remain level-headed in a conversation about sensitive topics?

Additionally during the conversation, you're analyzing their responses. For example you may know them to be very sarcastic or pessimistic, and parse their responses accordingly.

In an online context, everyone is going in blind, so conversations are not usually productive. You might have a well thought-out comment, but it will be rejected because you didn't know you were dealing with teenage edgelords, old racists, bots, or whatever.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of thinking in public vs. in private?

#20

Post by blowski »

davnicwil wrote: post #16

One con certainly is being unprepared for and therefore discouraged by an unfortunate rule of the internet comment box: it tends to heavily skew toward disagreements and nitpicks with whatever you put out there. If you don't account for this you'll come away with the impression that nobody gets value from the thoughts you've put out, when the reality may be the opposite. Sites like HN with upvotes help a bit with bal…

Some of my HN comments will simultaneously have only very critical replies and lots of upvotes. It’s hard to interpret that.
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