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A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#61

Post by grzm »

jessriedel wrote: post #58
grzm wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different journalistic styles appeal to different people. If this one didn't appeal to you, that's perfectly fine. To figure out why it didn't appeal to you, and why you personally find it frustrating, that's great, and a good exercise in critical thinking, literary analysis, and self examination. That said, there's a key difference between "This style of writing is very frustrating." and "I find this style of writin…

The fact that people enjoy different things does not mean they are all as intellectually valuable. Children like stories with talking animals, but that doesn't mean all talking animals are appropriate for all venues. Likewise, we can reasonably (even if contentiously) make value judgements about some format that people really enjoy, like pulpy romance novels, clickbait teasers, or outrage porn. HN is supposed to be a…

Indeed, HN is a place for gratifying intellectual curiosity. If you feel a submission (or comment, for that matter) is inappropriate for HN, please flag or down-vote it and move on. We all play a role in curating HN. Writing excessively negative comments (or comments written in an excessively negative way) lead to a worsening of discussion.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#62

Post by sanj »

wglb wrote: post #53
sanj wrote: post #42

Why wasn't this flagged as a dupe? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14316703 I would've expected the hash cruft to be ignored.

That's my error. I usually remove said cruft before submitting but neglected to do this time.

Sorry, I was asking more why HN didn't do it automatically.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#63

Post by wordupmaking »

wavefunction wrote: post #43
khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

Couldn't you just search for "Microsoft"+"watch"+"Parkinson's" and spend, let's say, two minutes selecting a "just the facts" article? You probably spent those two minutes writing your post.

I'm glad they took the time to write down what I was thinking while reading the article.

> You probably spent those two minutes writing your post.

Let's spent two years linking to that comment under every article it applies to.

Why not give us what we were baited with, and then put more backstory below for those interested? Instead it's just a jumbled mess, paragraphs just jumping all over the place.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#64

Post by grzm »

sanj wrote: post #62
wglb wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's my error. I usually remove said cruft before submitting but neglected to do this time.

Sorry, I was asking more why HN didn't do it automatically.

I agree, it's frustrating. I think the primary reason is that a general algorithm for doing so might be difficult to come up with. Some hosts, such as Medium, use unique identifiers for each page view which are apparently mapped on the server side. If that identifier is removed, Medium returns a 404.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#66

Post by nerdponx »

khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

This is classic longform journalism writing, and it's the reason why I don't like longform journalism. I wish they'd give me an abstract -- not having article summaries is the reason I never found any "good" magazine worth the money. Imagine so

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#67

Post by wordupmaking »

grzm wrote: post #51
khazhoux wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent about 10 minutes writing my post and it was very cathartic. The article is teasing the reader. It could have easily explained the basics of the device in one or two sentences at the top. The two main questions the reader has are "Does this work?" and "How does this work?" The writer is just being cute by not getting those answers out of the way.

Different journalistic styles appeal to different people. If this one didn't appeal to you, that's perfectly fine. To figure out why it didn't appeal to you, and why you personally find it frustrating, that's great, and a good exercise in critical thinking, literary analysis, and self examination. That said, there's a key difference between "This style of writing is very frustrating." and "I find this style of writin…

> From reading other comments in this thread, the story appealed to them.

The story, or the writing style? I also upvoted the story, because I'm not going to punish it for the shit writing. And I actually dislike that the topmost comment, which I agree to from the bottom of my heart, is about the style; but the very fact that it's at the top means that maybe even more people find it just as annoying.

As for the style, I couldn't find it here. Is there a name for it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_style

I always wish these blog posts were written like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid_(journalism)

Maybe it is about how "engagement" gets measured, and having people jump through hoops is more profitable than valuing their time and their own decisions about how deep they want to delve?

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#68

Post by Angostura »

nerdponx wrote: post #66
khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

This is classic longform journalism writing, and it's the reason why I don't like longform journalism. I wish they'd give me an abstract -- not having article summaries is the reason I never found any "good" magazine worth the money. Imagine so

It's really not. Longform journalism can be readable and not irritating, but you have to be a talented writer to pull it off. In addition the subject of the story has to be suitable. Here the talent is lacking and the subject doesnt fit the long-story treatmnent.

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#69

Post by jakobegger »

khazhoux wrote: post #39

Looks like nice work. I think. I couldn't find the details and didn't want to spend the full 15 minutes reading. This style of writing is very frustrating. 1. Introduction. We set up for something dramatic. In this case, a Parkinson's sufferer is about to see her life changed. In another recent story, a maternity nurse is about to birth her first child, and we were teased she would die after giving birth. Now we're a…

And with all that back story, they didn't even answer the most important question: WHERE DID THE IDEA COME FROM? How did the engineer know to she had to build a vibrating wristband?

Re: A prototype watch, raising hope for Parkinson’s

#70

Post by midnitewarrior »

petversen wrote: post #36
zevv wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a nagging feeling about this project as well. It is simply too good to be true: first we see a lone engineer fiddling with some wires on a prototyping board, and a few months later poof the girl can write again. She is defying years and years of experience by a large number of experts in the field, this just does not sound realistic. Why is this 'breakthrough' presented as the effort of an individual? The only…

Zhang was at Lift when she saw that they invented the spoon that compensates for Parkinson tremor during eating. That's where she got the idea. The wrist device was built by electrical engineers, not her.

It sounds like active noise canceling technology that you get in Bose and other expensive headphones, but instead of audible noise, it's tremors that are being canceled. When I saw EMMA, it made me think of the spoon, so it makes sense that she saw it too.
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