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Some tactics for writing in public

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Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#111

Post by deadbeeves »

hathchip wrote: post #110
deadbeeves wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you want me to conclude from this. Yes, "jizz" is indeed a vulgar slang in English. By a different etymology it is also the fictional name of a fictional musical genre that's similar to real jazz. By yet another etymology it is also the behavioral characteristics of a bird that enable a birdwatcher to identify it. It would be entirely correct to say "look at that jizz, that's definitely a golden-cre…

The Star Wars universe is fictional. Do you honestly believe that the author from our universe who came up with this name was not aware of the (Earth universe) meaning of the word 'jizz'?

When did I say that, and how is it relevant if they knew it or not?

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#112

Post by renewiltord »

These seem good. "Experience over opinions" was novel to me. Good one.

I didn't like "pre-empt" because it results in tedious prose. She's obviously a skillful writer so it's smooth for her, but I cannot do it right.

"Don't argue" is good. I fail this one frequently. The trick that works for me is to remind myself that I'm training someone for free.

I can't say I'm very good at "analyse negative comments". Some sort of CBT technique is probably necessary here, but I feel the following in order:

- "omg was I wrong?" followed by a quick check

- if yes, good outcome. I can just correct. if no, causes anger

I don't know why but being right and misunderstood is far more frustrating than being wrong. The latter triggers the "well, damn" dopamine response of discovery. But I'll keep pecking at the damned subject if I was right but the other guy refuses to understand it. This is my prime motivation for blocking on Twitter - and ideally people who misunderstand me frequently would block me too so I won't engage.

The others are sensible and it's nice that they're listed, but I don't think they are novel (which is obviously fine - presumably everyone has a different novel set here).

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#113

Post by NelsonMinar »

javajosh wrote: post #102

Great post, as usual. Lots of good advice for me. However it makes me sad that she blocked people for defending the author's meaning of "dig". Ignoring seems like a better path. I've often heard grope used in a non-sexual way, as in "groping in the dark" for something. This kind of over-reaction to language is a sore spot for me; like the Stanford language guidelines, telling people not to use the word "field" becaus…

Of all the good advice you say you read, why do you dwell on this one thing you don't like?

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#114

Post by lapcat »

javajosh wrote: post #107
justin_oaks wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you say makes a lot of sense. It would do us all well to seek to ask more questions and seek to understand before reaching for the block button. On the other hand, we all have limited time and patience for those who are likely arguing in bad faith. I won't fault someone for taking the quick route to defend their time and sanity. Even if the others may be arguing in good faith, this isn't a court of law here. We…

>I won't fault someone for taking the quick route to defend their time and sanity. Nor would I. But there has to be a better solution than blocking, which is ostracism. It concerns me how easily we ostracize, how it cheapens people. This is especially true for someone internet famous like Julia Evans - she has so many followers, what does it matter to her? But I guarantee it mattered to the ones she blocked. It proba…

> This is especially true for someone internet famous like Julia Evans - she has so many followers, what does it matter to her?

She's human, just like everyone else. It matters precisely because of "internet fame": you become an incessant target. Anonymous randos love to take down people who are more famous than them. From the article: "I realize this section makes me sound like a Perfectly Logical Person who does not get upset by negative public criticism, I promise this is not at all the case and I have 100000 feelings about everything that happens on the internet and get upset all the time."

> But I guarantee it mattered to the ones she blocked. It probably really hurt them, even if they wouldn't admit it.

I guarantee it doesn't. In my long experience of blocking people on social media, I can't recall the blocked person ever being sad or repentant. They're mostly self-righteous or vindictive.

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#115

Post by janalsncm »

I have a personal blog where I write about strictly professional topics. I have another blog where I write about things under a pen name because they are opinions that some people might not like. Having a shadow identity gives me the space to be “wrong” if I need to be.

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#116

Post by hathchip »

deadbeeves wrote: post #111
hathchip wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Star Wars universe is fictional. Do you honestly believe that the author from our universe who came up with this name was not aware of the (Earth universe) meaning of the word 'jizz'?

When did I say that, and how is it relevant if they knew it or not?

You said 'by a different etymology'. It's not a different etymology if they knew and were referring to the other meaning.

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#117

Post by remich »

dkarl wrote: post #10
mjb wrote: post #3

This is really great, actionable, sensible, advice for folks who write on the internet. It agrees with my experiences, too. On the other hand, it's sad that the culture we have built on the internet forces talented people like Julia to censor themselves and narrow the scope of their writing. > So I have a weird catalog in my head of things not to mention if I don’t want to start the same discussion about that thing f…

I think it's fair that some people have stronger feelings about and more appetite for discussing a topic than I do. To pick one of her examples, I've done a couple of toy projects with Tailwind. I think it's pretty neat, and I don't mind saying so! But I accept that people working full time on huge Tailwind projects at work probably care way more deeply about the topic than I do, are much more impacted by aspects of…

You know, that's interesting. I tend to avoid Tailwind discussion because I feel like I don't see enough opinions from people working full time on huge projects using it. Most of the time, it seems like the strongest opinions in favor come from folks who have only used it in toy apps, side projects, or completely greenfield small-to-medium applications.

There's nothing wrong with using it in that way, of course, or of thinking it's the best tool for the job in those scenarios. But for some reason I rarely see that caveat mentioned, and the idea of refactoring a legacy application to use it makes me queasy haha.

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#118

Post by remich »

wpietri wrote: post #48
dkarl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's fair that some people have stronger feelings about and more appetite for discussing a topic than I do. To pick one of her examples, I've done a couple of toy projects with Tailwind. I think it's pretty neat, and I don't mind saying so! But I accept that people working full time on huge Tailwind projects at work probably care way more deeply about the topic than I do, are much more impacted by aspects of…

Sure, but on the other hand people can learn to read the room. I am interested in lots of things, but that doesn't stop me from trying to fit the context and the interests of the other participants. E.g., I have a lot to say about cryptocurrency, but there was a time when it seemed like almost any HN discussion ended up with a tenuous cryptocurrency tangent. It was annoying and exhausting, and I'm glad we've mostly g…

I wonder if we've reached that point for LLMs/AI/ML yet. Sometimes it definitely seems like the discussion on HN is very influenced by the VC fad of the day.

Re: Some tactics for writing in public

#120

Post by zarathustreal »

lapcat wrote: post #32
zer8k wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Up/down vote systems, especially ones that punish the poster quickly by rendering their post unreadable, create a hivemind of people who agree. HN posters LOVE to point out the fact it's "not like Reddit" when, in fact, it is. If you say something factual but disagreeable with the current zeitgeist of HN (usually mid-to-far-left social policy) you will be met with downvotes. Even a small amount begins to add up until…

> the current zeitgeist of HN (usually mid-to-far-left social policy) HN has no zeitgeist, and "mid-to-far-left social policy" is not even close to my experience. A lot of commenters seem to think that HN has some kind of consensus, but it doesn't, as dang himself (the HN moderator) can testify. A number of different factions coexist (uneasily) here. My experience is that upvotes and downvotes are... pretty random, s…

I'm going to have to disagree with you, on both points. I, like the person you're responding to, have experienced the zeitgeist of HN and have come to the same conclusion of a prevailing mid-to-far-left social policy. Again I agree with GP on the points they make about voting, in fact I think we should get rid of votes altogether. The fact is, for most people a vote is a reflection of who they are, not the comment they're voting on.

Like I've said before, a comment can be downvoted by every single user on HN and still be accurate and true. The truth is the only thing that matters. Unfortunately, we're each responsible for our own reactions to the feelings we have, and that often means, despite a commenter's best effort, they're still going to offend some and please others. Since we can't please everyone, the best way to do the most good with your words is to use them to spread the truth. The truth is always going to be hard to deal with for some, but they'll be better off with that awareness than with (perhaps blissful) ignorance because the choice of whether to stay ignorant is put into their own hands.

Side note: This also reduces the total amount of suffering in the world by reducing the number of people who end up having to pay for the consequences of their actions without any awareness of the existence of the consequences (such as breaking a law you were unaware of and being put in jail for something you didn't know was illegal)

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