Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why? • Hacker News Board

Re: Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

#11

Post by vunderba » Fri, Aug 09, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

I write relatively frequently, but I’m at a stage in life where I realize I’m incapable of focusing on a single domain. My posts span from topics like:

- The Art of Windows 95 Pranks https://specularrealms.com/2023/07/20/the-lost-art-of-window...

- Parodies of Old Testament Biblical Figures https://mordenstar.com/blog/bible-stories

- Creation of the Collapse Sort Algorithm https://specularrealms.com/2023/07/10/collapse-sort

I’m objectively terrible at understanding how to cultivate an audience and it doesn't help that my range is so divergent that I’m not entirely confident a relevant target demograph even exists. I prefer to think of writing as analogous to periodically tossing messages in a bottle into the sea hoping that if I throw enough of them I’ll eventually get fined by the EPA.

TLDR: OP, writing that isn't read still has some intrinsic value because ultimately writing is a craft.

Re: Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

#12

Post by vunderba » Fri, Aug 09, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

sk11001 wrote: post #5

Mostly to myself as a tool to help my thought process and mental health. I don't feel like I have anything interesting enough to share more widely, and my opinion and writing style change often so there's a good chance that a year or two after publishing anything online I will hate it and/or disagree to some extent.

True - it also can be intriguing to go back to your earlier writings as they are the closest thing we have to a mental "time capsule", like looking at old faded photographs of yourself.

Re: Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

#13

Post by vunderba » Fri, Aug 09, 2024, 4:43 PM UTC

joe8756438 wrote: post #8

I find writing a good way to learn and share. I write about my experience running a small farm. It's a process that helps me appreciate the death part of growing new life. https://hedgerider.substack.com

Appreciate these kinds of modest blogs about niche topics (well for Hacker News anyway). I read your article about Pecking Order. As a child, I remembered hearing a crazy story about how some poultry farms would fit their chickens with "rose-tinted glasses" in order to help disguise the sight of blood to mitigate potential violence within the flock.

Re: Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

#14

Post by beezlebroxxxxxx » Fri, Aug 09, 2024, 7:15 PM UTC

I write fiction. I would highly recommend it to everyone, even if those stories are just for yourself. Writing fiction makes you extremely sensitive to the means and impact of how you present your story's information. When you approach character, you come face to face with how much you understand someone (anyone at all really); well written characters have well written reasons for their actions. You will become obsessed (in a good way) with the ways that the reasons we tell ourselves about why such and such or so and so is precisely that way are so important. Writing fiction and characters changes how you look at people off the page.

Re: Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

#15

Post by _f9cu » Mon, Aug 12, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

I write. With pen and paper.

Started this habit 5 years back, because if I do anything else, I get brain dead.

I also believe in a singularity concept that someone will build a comouter product that will make your work instead of you doing you work. So to skill myself ahead, I stopped learning programming related and started writing and gives an upper hand.

Writing is healthier as you use your hand in the direction you control. Whereas digital devices, forces the input, plus the light from the devices creates a new universe in your head.