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I’m a freelance copywriter

getcoleman.com

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Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#91
post #31

If you want a general term for this sort of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StretchText . (The original note describing the concept: http://i.imgur.com/jOCOQGI.png )

Here's a long-term AI/ML goal - interpolate between Simple Wikipedia and regular Wikipedia article on the same topic and use StretchText to allow the reader to decide their level of depth.

I want this for learning faster, summarizing a page, but it's hard to teach something (to me). Like have it pull all the text in plain text, you read the page and pull the information that is new/important to you. Which this is subjective/different per person, but if the "AI" is unique to you then I think that would make sense.

But for this to work, you'd have to have a history/scope of your current knowledge.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's actually describing the essence of something much more ambitious than the World Wide Web, if you can believe that. Ted Nelson's idea was/is called "Xanadu": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu The Xanadu vision is centered on a hypertext system, like the Web. But unlike the Web, it also includes such things as: - A mechanism for embedding live documents within other documents ("transclusion": https://en…

I favorited your comment so I can point people to it who have trouble grasping "worse is better". This is a much better example than clos vs scheme or linux vs microkernels.

It is a good example indeed.

Though when dealing with people who reject "worse is better", remember that some people may not grasp the idea, but others may grasp it very well and just consider it a bad thing - a problem to work around.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#94

Going through his portfolio, my sarcastic side trying to find something that will somehow justify for my mind why a person's writing is so good that he gets paid for it consistently. Flip through, see [0] A picture of a boy playing in a puddle with a Washtub on his head, with the caption: "The joy of being five. You've got just 365 days to capture it". Ok, now I get it. (goes to my soon to be 6 daughter and gives her…

For exactly that reason. The job of a copywriter is to find the 'essential truth' in an image that could as banal as a five year old playing with a washtub.

That essential truth has to be something that a large number of people can 'get' within two seconds on reading it and require no further context or explanation.

And it has to be patently non-obvious or cliched. It's not enough to say 'they grow up fast.' There are also tricks of the trade in the way he has structured the sentence that you're probably not even consciously aware of - such as the punchline of 'capture it' being left to the end of the sentence so you have to read the whole thing to understand it.

Or the simple, evocative 'The joy of being five', which brings to mind all sorts of associations and sets the context for the punchline. 'Imagine what it's like being a child' doesn't have the same impact, does it?

If that sounds simple - try doing the same with a random image from Google Images or something you've seen in the news. You'll find that it's not easy. Copywriting is an art like any other.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#95

If you want a general term for this sort of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StretchText . (The original note describing the concept: http://i.imgur.com/jOCOQGI.png )

That image is an absolutely fascinating historical artifact. He's describing (in a related paper) the essence of web sites in detail in 1965 . It's difficult to even imagine how few people were thinking of such things when they were so far removed everyday life and culture. Tim Berners-Lee I thought was much more well known for starting a revolution with the world wide web. I hate to say but the web seems a bit less…

> It's difficult to even imagine how few people were thinking of such things when they were so far removed everyday life and culture.

I guess this is why you need imagination, and to not stifle it.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That image is an absolutely fascinating historical artifact. He's describing (in a related paper) the essence of web sites in detail in 1965 . It's difficult to even imagine how few people were thinking of such things when they were so far removed everyday life and culture. Tim Berners-Lee I thought was much more well known for starting a revolution with the world wide web. I hate to say but the web seems a bit less…

He's actually describing the essence of something much more ambitious than the World Wide Web, if you can believe that. Ted Nelson's idea was/is called "Xanadu": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu The Xanadu vision is centered on a hypertext system, like the Web. But unlike the Web, it also includes such things as: - A mechanism for embedding live documents within other documents ("transclusion": https://en…

> - A micropayments system for content creators to sell access to what they create

Today an attempt at such a thing would probably be demonized as DRM..

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I favorited your comment so I can point people to it who have trouble grasping "worse is better". This is a much better example than clos vs scheme or linux vs microkernels.

It is a good example indeed. Though when dealing with people who reject "worse is better", remember that some people may not grasp the idea, but others may grasp it very well and just consider it a bad thing - a problem to work around.

Good point. I think the latter opinion is a very valid opinion to be had. And often it's also something you can agree to disagree about.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#98
post #29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Lingscars.com is arguably the worst money-making website on the Internet [0]. [0] http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/15/welcome-to-lingscars-quite-pos...

A little anecdote, a few years ago I posted a link to her site here. Moments later the traffic from Hacker News took down her site and she took to Twitter to complain about the "Hackers" that brought her site down.

Is there a way to DDOS your self on purpose? I want to bench mark my servers. I saw that there are some tools, damn... need to refer to some old forum threads...

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#99
I could refer to this when writing cover letters. First line in my most recent cover letter "I was ecstatic..." fail... My eyes were popping out of my head when I came across this listing.

edit: following through the progression, it would not be hard to emulate this and get responses but then the problem comes back to your actual competence. Thanks for sharing this is helpful.

edit: would probably help to dissect this for visible-progression, but the pattern seems to be:

feel free -> if you need -> hello I'm -> then more and more dictating, not so much choice, you need to choose me.

Re: I’m a freelance copywriter

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That image is an absolutely fascinating historical artifact. He's describing (in a related paper) the essence of web sites in detail in 1965 . It's difficult to even imagine how few people were thinking of such things when they were so far removed everyday life and culture. Tim Berners-Lee I thought was much more well known for starting a revolution with the world wide web. I hate to say but the web seems a bit less…

He's actually describing the essence of something much more ambitious than the World Wide Web, if you can believe that. Ted Nelson's idea was/is called "Xanadu": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu The Xanadu vision is centered on a hypertext system, like the Web. But unlike the Web, it also includes such things as: - A mechanism for embedding live documents within other documents ("transclusion": https://en…

Are web sockets not enough regarding the document embedding and hyperlink updating...
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