The List of N Things • Hacker News Board

Re: The List of N Things

#11

Post by abstractbill » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:20 PM UTC

andreyf wrote: post #9

Sorry for nitpicking, but first sentence should be I'll bet you , not I bet you .

I think the "I'll bet you..." form is more standard in the US, but saying "I bet you..." is definitely acceptable, and in my experience is actually much more common in some other English-speaking countries (e.g. England itself).

Re: The List of N Things

#12

Post by joez » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:23 PM UTC

My favorite is when N is a nice round number like 25, 50, 100 or 101. What is the likelyhood that the exhaustive list ends up being such a marketable number? Must be very low. So I always wonder what was omitted or, more likely, what pork was added to get to the round number.

Re: The List of N Things

#13

Post by riffer » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:24 PM UTC

The insight that readers like knowing that writers have agreed to be constrained is a great one. Witness Twitter.

Re: The List of N Things

#14

Post by fjabre » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:27 PM UTC

While PG makes some good points it sounds a little bit like why to read Shakespeare instead of Poe.

I happen to like both. Although I might add the list of N things does get abused more often.

I think using Cosmopolitan as an example and/or relegating the N-List format to newbie writers takes it a bit far.

Re: The List of N Things

#15

Post by Dilpil » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:34 PM UTC

I wonder if this article will be a huge hit on digg?

Re: The List of N Things

#16

Post by sayrer » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:37 PM UTC

They're called listicles.

Re: The List of N Things

#17

Post by baha_man » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:38 PM UTC

pingswept wrote: post #6

I don't know-- I've eaten some pretty bad cheeseburgers at good restaurants.

How can you call a restaurant good if they can't even serve a decent cheeseburger?

Re: The List of N Things

#18

Post by BRadmin » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:53 PM UTC

"...the 5 most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years."

http://www.paulgraham.com/5founders.html

Re: The List of N Things

#19

Post by randallsquared » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 10:05 PM UTC

> You think of n/2 of them in the first 5 minutes.

The word that leaps to mind here is "half". :)

Re: The List of N Things

#20

Post by jokull » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 10:10 PM UTC

pingswept wrote: post #6

I don't know-- I've eaten some pretty bad cheeseburgers at good restaurants.

I live in London and these Brits cannot make an honest, decent hamburger. The good ones are ones in fancy dress. The simple ones are dry meatballs of a pale sickly color. They've got a nice sandwich chain called Pret a Manger that make consistently good food however. And a very strong café americano.