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The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

blog.stevenpressfield.com

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Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#2
One of the most important lessons about writing that I ever learned was to make sure people could read what you wrote.

Here is a screenshot of my browser window opened onto the article in question.

http://www.penzba.co.uk/StevenPressfield.jpg

It will be ironic if this is one of those occasions that my ISP fails to serve the page, but if you get a "forbidden" or similar, hit "Reload".

So, for those of you who run web sites - what does your site look like in an older browser, and should you care?

FWIW I could read the article if I selected all text (Ctrl-A).

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#4

One of the most important lessons about writing that I ever learned was to make sure people could read what you wrote. Here is a screenshot of my browser window opened onto the article in question. http://www.penzba.co.uk/StevenPressfield.jpg It will be ironic if this is one of those occasions that my ISP fails to serve the page, but if you get a "forbidden" or similar, hit "Reload". So, for those of you who run web…

It works fine for me and is actually quite good.

Just to be sure I checked it in konqueror too (4.2.2) and it works there too.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#5
My project advisor once gave me a piece of advice that changed everything I've written since for the better. After apologizing for the forthcoming crudeness, she passed on this gem:

You're writing "Mary was fucked by John." You /should/ be writing "John fucked Mary."

I can say what I need to say in half the words now.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#6
post #3

Geez! Just get another account and have your old email account forward emails to you.

If that's a reply to me, I'm not sure I understand you. The page does not render in a readable fashion in my (only slightly) elderly browser. I'm not sure what that has to do with email.

Have I missed your point? Could you expand on it a little? Thanks.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#7
post #4

One of the most important lessons about writing that I ever learned was to make sure people could read what you wrote. Here is a screenshot of my browser window opened onto the article in question. http://www.penzba.co.uk/StevenPressfield.jpg It will be ironic if this is one of those occasions that my ISP fails to serve the page, but if you get a "forbidden" or similar, hit "Reload". So, for those of you who run web…

It works fine for me and is actually quite good. Just to be sure I checked it in konqueror too (4.2.2) and it works there too.

I can read it fine when I highlight the text. And the article is quite good - yes. I've up-mud it.

My point remains.

I'm actually technically fairly competent compared with most of my customers. If either of my companies served a web page like that, half my customers wouldn't be able to read it. Is that my problem?? Or theirs?

It's my problem. If you have a web page, you need to decide where the cut-off is. The author here either doesn't know that his page doesn't render correctly, or doesn't care. Either way, if I were a customer, I'd be less than impressed.

So the question remains: Can your customers read your web page(s)?

(In your specific case, jacquesm, I know the answer is "yes")

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#9
Hacker's Corollary:

"The Most Important Programming Lesson I Ever Learned"

Nobody wants to run your shit.

Make it simple. Make it easy. Make it fun (to the extent that you can). Make it intuitive. Make it do exactly what needs to be done.

Your user is too busy for anything else.

Re: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

#10
post #3

Geez! Just get another account and have your old email account forward emails to you.

If that's a reply to me, I'm not sure I understand you. The page does not render in a readable fashion in my (only slightly) elderly browser. I'm not sure what that has to do with email. Have I missed your point? Could you expand on it a little? Thanks.

It looks more like a reply to the guy who ran out of space in his gmail account. How did it get here?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850827

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