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Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#141

Post by keule »

ismail wrote: post #96
eliben wrote: post #80

Books Seriously. Books are the ultimate long-form content; their authors typically spend years researching and writing them, and you can sample many reviews before committing to read one.

How do you avoid the problem of low signal to noise ratio? Some books in the popular business press can be reduced to several pages, with the core idea, rationale, and examples. Yet they all end up being longer than needed with tons of exposition.

You may want to check out Blinkist. https://www.blinkist.com/ They give you the condensed information. Usually it is enough to get an overview. For a deep dive you can follow up by buying the book.

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#142

Post by kp25 »

- https://waitbutwhy.com/ by Tim Urban

- https://moretothat.com/ by Lawrence Yeo

- https://psyche.co/

- https://aeon.co/

- https://www.quantamagazine.org/

I didn't realise till now, I read at least 2-3 articles a week from the above list. Well written long form content.

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#144

Post by LoveMortuus »

Important quote to not forget: "If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter"

Meaning quantity =/= quality. That being said, a lot of short content today has near zero quality.

When TikTok reached first place on the DNS thingy, I decided to try it, so as to not feel like I'm out of touch. My findings were that TikTok works on disappointment, it's going to show you low quality content for so long that you drop your expectations to almost zero, which means that when you do eventually see some content with at least a bit of effort put into it, it gives you a dopamine hit and you feel like it was all worth it. I personally have not been able to find any usefulness from the app except consuming time, which it's great at. But if you've got a lot of time to waste you might as well be reading a book or something, not sure. I haven't really been able to fit TikTok into my life, but I don't really feel like I'm missing anything.

Also food for thought: "YouTube used to have much more short form content, but then the algorithm forced many to making videos that are at least 10 min long. Doing that YouTube removed enough creators for a platform like TikTok to be viable and successful. Now YouTube introduced YouTube Shorts. Think..." (https://twitter.com/LoveMortuus/status/1485258235137429507?t...)

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#145

Post by env123 »

As much as The Economist is good, it's still news, which has negative effects on the mind + it's too focused on global economy which don't really have any value for me, maybe to an actual economist/global leader, it would

XXX Review of Books are good, but they're basically convoluted essays. Good for anybody else, not for my time though

Aeon focuses much on philosophy. I no longer read this though because it's too academic for my taste

Brain Pickings, Arts & Daily, 3 Quarks Daily focuses much on classics, mostly - I'd rather read classics that reading writings about classics, nowadays

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#146

Post by env123 »

env123 wrote: post #145

As much as The Economist is good, it's still news, which has negative effects on the mind + it's too focused on global economy which don't really have any value for me, maybe to an actual economist/global leader, it would XXX Review of Books are good, but they're basically convoluted essays. Good for anybody else, not for my time though Aeon focuses much on philosophy. I no longer read this though because it's too ac…

^ This.

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#147

Post by hardlianotion »

causi wrote: post #95
baron816 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about audiobooks? Had I had the option to listen to audiobooks while I was in school, I would’ve been a much better student. I never read any of the assigned reading when I was in school because I couldn’t keep my focus on the words, but I’m finding myself cruising through about one very long book per month. Most of the books had been non-fiction (social science and history mostly), but more recently I’ve been ge…

Audiobooks are my saving grace when it comes to my daily commute and doing boring chores at home.

Agreed on the commute. I find that, having stopped commuting, I cannot follow an audiobook any more.

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#148

Post by eliben »

ismail wrote: post #96
eliben wrote: post #80

Books Seriously. Books are the ultimate long-form content; their authors typically spend years researching and writing them, and you can sample many reviews before committing to read one.

How do you avoid the problem of low signal to noise ratio? Some books in the popular business press can be reduced to several pages, with the core idea, rationale, and examples. Yet they all end up being longer than needed with tons of exposition.

Fair question.

I spend some time researching books before I read them; very low signal-to-noise books typically will have reviews saying that. I also mostly avoid whole categories of books which are prone to this; I still get bitten once in a while, but like in one book out of 20 maybe, so overall it's not bad.

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#149

Post by eliben »

baron816 wrote: post #90
eliben wrote: post #80

Books Seriously. Books are the ultimate long-form content; their authors typically spend years researching and writing them, and you can sample many reviews before committing to read one.

How about audiobooks? Had I had the option to listen to audiobooks while I was in school, I would’ve been a much better student. I never read any of the assigned reading when I was in school because I couldn’t keep my focus on the words, but I’m finding myself cruising through about one very long book per month. Most of the books had been non-fiction (social science and history mostly), but more recently I’ve been ge…

A lot of my reading is audiobooks. I love audiobooks - they enabled my reading levels to go way up in the last few years. Some more details about this here: https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2020/my-reading-habits/

Re: Ask HN: Where are you going to find long-form content online these days?

#150

Post by loughnane »

ismail wrote: post #96
eliben wrote: post #80

Books Seriously. Books are the ultimate long-form content; their authors typically spend years researching and writing them, and you can sample many reviews before committing to read one.

How do you avoid the problem of low signal to noise ratio? Some books in the popular business press can be reduced to several pages, with the core idea, rationale, and examples. Yet they all end up being longer than needed with tons of exposition.

I get a high ratio by reading old books that are still highly regarded.

If it’s been around for generations and people have and continue to find it worthwhile, it’s a pretty good indicator that it will be a good use of time.

It’s not perfect, but the hit rate is much better than when I dip into pop psych/business/self-help books.

I do still read modern books, but only when something strikes me as particularly worthwhile.

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