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To become a better writer, read as much as you can

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Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#241

Post by daseiner1 »

buxwash__5 wrote: post #206
philipov wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mass is more than the sum of its parts, and if only a small minority exercise critical thinking they will be overwhelmed by the whole. As the great comic wrote - those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but those who learn from history are doomed to stand by helplessly as everyone else repeats it. And furthermore, a democracy can not survive if the majority of the voter base is incapable of cri…

For someone literate you should probably know better. First of all the Patriots were not even a simple majority. Turns out you don't need a majority to win what is basically a war of insurgency. There are several modern analogs that reflect this reality. Second of all the country was founded by elites. It wasn't that farmers could do critical thinking (whatever that really means) it was that the punitive British resp…

holy hell I enjoy an acerbic takedown as much as the next guy but this is beyond the pale.

given that we do now live in a society with a universal right to vote the need for an educated populace esp. regarding matters of civil society is more important than ever.

You've also misinterpreted the parent comment as they wrote nothing about contemporary intelligence. They're instead referring to structural forces that negatively impact critical thinking. See: the glut of commentary from otherwise highly intelligent and accomplished people reporting their own ability to focus being negatively impacted by social media and short-form content.

Furthermore, this is why the old school shared media outlets (the whole "back when everybody watched Walter Cronkite every night" thing) was so valuable. Few of us have the time to consider the issues with any degree of nuance or accuracy. So it's a real problem when the collective "source of truth" is poisoned by a horde of uncertified, often anonymous, charlatans spewing outright lies and incendiary half-truths, distributed at scale via algorithms designed to divide and inflame.

disclaimer: i'm fiercely anti-democracy, esp. with universal suffrage, for the exact reasons you cited.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#242

Post by nwyin »

i think this take gets misinterpreted and misapplied. here are some other sentences to think about.

to become a good chef, eat a lot. to become a great producer, listen to a lot of music. to direct great films, watch a lot of movies.

these sorts of advices superficially soothe the reality that you're spending too much time consuming and not actually creating. or even practicing creation.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#243

Post by nojvek »

nwyin wrote: post #242

i think this take gets misinterpreted and misapplied. here are some other sentences to think about. to become a good chef, eat a lot. to become a great producer, listen to a lot of music. to direct great films, watch a lot of movies. these sorts of advices superficially soothe the reality that you're spending too much time consuming and not actually creating. or even practicing creation.

It’s more akin to.

Why aspire to become a good chef, if you don’t enjoy culinary experiences ?

Why aspire to be a director, if you don’t love watching movies and living those experiences?

Many people want to build great apps, but don’t want to to debug and read code. Just let codex rip.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#244

Post by daseiner1 »

nwyin wrote: post #242

i think this take gets misinterpreted and misapplied. here are some other sentences to think about. to become a good chef, eat a lot. to become a great producer, listen to a lot of music. to direct great films, watch a lot of movies. these sorts of advices superficially soothe the reality that you're spending too much time consuming and not actually creating. or even practicing creation.

false dichotomy, no? critical consumption is an entirely separate matter than mindless consumption. great filmmakers watch great, historic films to learn technique, just like great chefs eat different cuisines to learn new elements of flavor. great music is often a delightful gumbo of genres, artists, styles that came before.

we're not talking about watching whatever happens to be on netflix.

personal taste is developed by... actively developing a sense of taste.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#245

Post by vintagedave »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #159
vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

I read a little. I suppose my own excuse for not reading more is that I am too often disappointed in the stuff I have read—been recommended to read. I would however like to write a thing that I would like to read . (If that makes sense.) I suppose we'll see then if that makes me a shitty writer. (Probably. But that could also be from having not written anything of significant length ever before in my life.)

Your motivation is perfect. I think the absolute ideal one to have.

Go for it — and when you finish I’d love to buy a copy.

(Or if you want to talk writing in the meantime, my profile -> website -> about -> LinkedIn (I know! The horror!) is surprisingly the best way to contact me. Either way: May you have good luck and a fluid pen.)

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#246

Post by PUSH_AX »

vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

All books are written, not all writing is for books.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#247

Post by mckn1ght »

nojvek wrote: post #243
nwyin wrote: post #242

i think this take gets misinterpreted and misapplied. here are some other sentences to think about. to become a good chef, eat a lot. to become a great producer, listen to a lot of music. to direct great films, watch a lot of movies. these sorts of advices superficially soothe the reality that you're spending too much time consuming and not actually creating. or even practicing creation.

It’s more akin to. Why aspire to become a good chef, if you don’t enjoy culinary experiences ? Why aspire to be a director, if you don’t love watching movies and living those experiences? Many people want to build great apps, but don’t want to to debug and read code. Just let codex rip.

I’ve been debating a lot of people on that last point.

A lot of anti slop professors want to bring the debate back around to the mechanical process of coding. I think that’s misguided.

To me, building software is about understanding the users’ needs, knowing what UI patterns work well, how to integrate into the larger platform ecosystem, and ultimately, solving the problems the users have.

Making it about debugging arcane, temporary idiosyncrasies in the platform, 3rd party tools etc is like telling writers they should typeset their own book on a printing press.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#250

Post by [deleted] »

kriro wrote: post #213
allanbreyes wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you publish, and I hope you tell that story. And I hope people read it. There's a sobering article recently published in The Atlantic[1][2] about the end of reading and how we're in a postliterate age. We're reading more words than ever, but instead of coming from books, they're coming from digital media. We're losing that same muscle for long-form reading and deep focus that the original author talks about be…

As someone who also dabbles in writing fiction (unpublished) I'm less pessimistic. I keep hearing less people read and the end of long form writing is near. To me this signals a great time to write and publish because the smaller the niche, the happier the people who get quality stuff in it. The "book bubble" of avid readers is the most anti-AI community I am a member of which is a very interesting perspective (I do…

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