Sorry for nitpicking, but first sentence should be I'll bet you , not I bet you .
Paul Graham has managed to set himself up an army of nitpickers (free editors).
The List of N Things
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: The List of N Things
#22That protocol is cracked.com's livelihood.
Re: The List of N Things
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Essays are planned; papers are stream-of-consciousness. Readers can't follow the internal machinations of a particular writer's psyche; while you can have a revelatory essay, you still need to plan it. My best example: Woolf reads like stream of consciousness, but she was a meticulous planner: she obsessed over every word - her daily output was a mere 75-150 words.
I think it's the opposite, isn't it? Essays are "tentative"; they're a written document of the writer's grappling with their subject, which is why you get so many ideas while writing them.
I think that's only sometimes true. There are a number of well-written proscriptive essays where the author chooses to ignore paths that proved fruitless during her time drafting the essay. Furthermore, even personal essays can leave out sidebars that prove to be meaningless distractions. If I used Etherpad, I'm sure I'd write three times as many words as there are in the finished product; I remove more than I write, and I think that's the case for most people who take the craft seriously (regardless of skill, of which I have little beyond passion).
On the process of writing, however, you're spot on.
Re: The List of N Things
#24> You think of n/2 of them in the first 5 minutes. The word that leaps to mind here is "half". :)
Why use four characters when you can use three?
Re: The List of N Things
#25Lists are just writing devices. There are lots of other writing devices, and they all serve the same purpose: as scaffolding for building up ideas and communicating effectively. Some of the popular ones: * Socratic dialog (ie, the openings of G.E.B. chapters) * Extended metaphor (ie, mechanical_fish's zoo comment) * Anthopomorphism (ie, Gruber's adventures of the washed-up brushed metal theme) * F.A.Q. * Narrative (i…
The 3 Reasons I agree with tptacek's statement:
1. It puts everything in perspective. After all, essay is just another one of several devices to convey a point through writing.
2. He clearly states that any one of these devices can be abused. Surely anyone can write a crappy and spam-filled essay with a catchy title just as they can do so with a list.
3. Clearly many people surfing the Internet do have A.D.D. Perhaps the cause is the Internet itself but it doesn't matter, the end result is the same - namely, reading material for A.D.D. Internet users is in high demand.
EOL
Re: The List of N Things
#26"The list of n things similarly limits the damage that can be done by a bad writer."
I have more things I want to do than I have time to do them; why in the world would I waste time reading something if I expected it to be by a bad writer? I have quit reading writers before when I came across strong evidence of bias or incompetence in their writings.
Re: The List of N Things
#27"...the 5 most interesting startup founders of the last 30 years." http://www.paulgraham.com/5founders.html
The beginning of that sentence is: "Inc recently asked me who I thought were..."
Re: The List of N Things
#28A nice way of suggesting what I have felt, and that such articles are quite often hastily prepared. Most importantly, how do we as readers have any confidence that an article titled "The 7 ..." is really inclusive or even instructive?
Re: The List of N Things
#29I don't know-- I've eaten some pretty bad cheeseburgers at good restaurants.
I've eaten some amazing cheeseburgers at really bad restaurants.
Maybe they serve bad cheeseburgers so you'll tell your friends -- that way, they'll avoid having any customers who regularly converse with someone willing to admit he orders cheeseburgers.