171–180 of 188 posts
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It was my old astrophotography blog: https://neurohack.com/Astrophotography/index.html And the book it led to is 101 Amazing Sights of the Night Sky: https://www.amazon.com/101-Amazing-Sights-Night-Sky/dp/15919... Neither is very popular, but it was a lot of fun.
Did not expect to see a book about night sky in this post. The book looks great. I'm getting one for my sons.
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I clicked on some random post from 2020, 19 em-dashes.
You do realise there are AI checkers online. https://www.zerogpt.com/ assesses this content as: 27.49% ChatGPT While this writer obviously had a lot of input into the model, they even state (or more accurately according to zerogpt, ChatGPT wrote this whole paragraph) "The writing process should be highly iterative", so they have added their own flavour into the writing, but it is still , (probably not for much longer…
One of the tough pills I and probably many other developers have had to swallow when maturing is that "non-programming skills" from schools are useful and very valuable, actually. Writing is one of them. Everyone loves a programmer that can explain themselves. An opinion isn't worth having if you aren't able to defend it either. Maintaining a blog therefore seems like a great way of improving your writing skills whil…
Maybe in US, if you learn to write in a simple and straightforward way. In France essays are all about writing in a complex way to show how smart you are. Which not only is not a useful skill to have, it's detrimental because we learn to write in obscure and hard to understand ways.
I was once asked to write to then governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to sway him on some political issue. That's certainly a practical assignment, but I chatted with some classmates about it, and none of us thought the professor would give a good grade to something that might genuinely sway the man.
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Related, I think people have stopped.... reacting on the internet? I've been part of the X/Twitter to Bluesky migration and people often mention how 'quiet' Bluesky is. I think that's not due to algorithmic intervention of product design etc., I think people are just tired. The novelty of shouting at strangers on the internet has worn off - how many internet fights have we gotten into that did nothing in the end exce…
This is relatable. I often find myself starting a reply on here, really thinking it through as I type it out, and then hitting delete on what I just wrote. Sometimes I even hit submit, and then delete a few moments later. It's just hard to justify engaging. Worst case, I get a fight on my hands with someone who's as dogmatic as they are wrong, which is both frequent and also a complete waste of my time. (A tech reade…
One of the tough pills I and probably many other developers have had to swallow when maturing is that "non-programming skills" from schools are useful and very valuable, actually. Writing is one of them. Everyone loves a programmer that can explain themselves. An opinion isn't worth having if you aren't able to defend it either. Maintaining a blog therefore seems like a great way of improving your writing skills whil…
Maybe in US, if you learn to write in a simple and straightforward way. In France essays are all about writing in a complex way to show how smart you are. Which not only is not a useful skill to have, it's detrimental because we learn to write in obscure and hard to understand ways.
Totally random rant. I have a lot to say. About lot of things. I don't blog because, most of the time, I'm worried about what people might think. Sometimes I speak up in public and people are confused, so - I think - it will only be amplified online. Sometimes I want to share a bit of code, and I'm not sure if the formatting will please everyone. Or naming convention. But most of all it's putting it all together. The…
> Sometimes I want to share a bit of code, and I'm not sure if the formatting will please everyone. Or naming convention. Do what pleases you. Write and share first and most importantly for yourself. If other people find it interesting or useful they will read, if not, they will not. Writing is a muscle you need to train, so start with small topics you want to say stuff about, learn, it will become easier. Then do th…
I see this sentiment a lot; I've written tens of thousands of comments on the internet (on different sites) over 25+ years. Am I a better writer? I don't feel like one. Is there anything objectively measurable that could answer that?
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congrats! fun little story. how much did you make from it?
Not very much. Maybe $10K over 10 years. Do not quit your day job! But I'm hoping to make $2K from the Anthropic settlement, so I got that going for me.
Thanks.
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Many (most?) WYSIWYG editors automatically convert two hyphens (--) to em dash, no need to specifically look out for it.
People aren't likely to pre-type their HN and reddit comments in a word processor though, so when you see them on such sites, it's a good indication that the comment came from an LLM and not a genuine person.
Not that it matters since I type such characters with my keybored directly. There are dozens of us.
My grandad used to be a farmer, and used to keep a diary in which he wrote an entry every day before bed. It was all just really simple sentences of the things he did from one day to the next. What he had for breakfast, the work he did, what he sold, who he met down at the market and the little things going on in his life and the lives of those around him.
I do the same now, as a programmer. I write down what happened in my day, albeit digitally, and with a few more thoughts and ideas than he did (he was much more serious and hardworking than me). The place I put them is public, because sometimes I share a link when I've written something I think a family member or close friend might find interesting.
Both he did, and I do it for the same reason. It's for us, the writers, to use as an outlet. I don't think grandad ever looked back at things in his book, and nor do I with my digital entries. We just date them, write them, and forget them. I think it's just useful as a place to write everything off of the brain. The actual writing process can help you in your writing, which is always a bonus, regardless of how many people are viewing it.
When he died a couple of years ago, I kept his books. A part of me actually feels odd reading them, like they are not for me, despite the normal contents. I think that, as a matter of fact, he would actually have wanted me to destroy them. He was always a very serious person. I'm keeping them stored away, like my own, because those books are a bit like having him here. When I do read bits, it's like he is still here. I can see him from the simple things he's written down, even if he wasn't an author or professional writer.
Maybe when I'm gone, my descendants will read my writings in the same way as I've found his.