Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thin desires are eating life

joanwestenberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 285 posts

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#151

Post by datastoat »

ablob wrote: post #135
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading, I knew someone would comment on it. I actually prefer the style - maybe because my attention span is shot. But I think it’s more because the author made sure each sentence was content heavy. No verbose paragraphs. And paragraphs made of dense sentences are themselves dense and become harder to read. Reflect on the structure of your own comment. I suspect you were not intentionally trying to be ironic. Edit:…

A paragraph is a feature designed to help the reader understand the writer's intentions. If it is used all the time, just like here, then it ceases to be helpful in marking breaks in trains of thought; or anything for that matter. Consider the following excerpt of the post: The thick life doesn't scale. That's the whole point. So: bake bread. There is absolutely no information there that would warrant three full stop…

Wouldn’t it be handy if the browser could intelligently join this author’s sentences into paragraphs?! (in connection to the thread about Mozilla putting AI in the browser)

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#152

Post by JKCalhoun »

velcrovan wrote: post #146
neuralkoi wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just you. I've read this person's stuff before. Every sentence comes off as if they are presenting the results of a major epiphany. You can write things which sound pretty. It's the equivalent of wordy sugar. It's much harder to to write things you've learned from life experience or thought deeply about. Subject your beliefs to the Socratic method. If they've survived your own criticism to the fullest extent…

Robin Sloan has called this “ventilated prose”, a phrase I love. (I seem to recall “aerated prose” having also been deployed) See, e.g., the end of https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/platform-reality/

Rarified prose…

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#153

Post by [deleted] »

poemxo wrote: post #149
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Your need to quip about the article's presentation instead of its meaning is a thin desire.

[deleted]

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#154

Post by unyttigfjelltol »

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #106
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Reading, I knew someone would comment on it. I actually prefer the style - maybe because my attention span is shot. But I think it’s more because the author made sure each sentence was content heavy. No verbose paragraphs. And paragraphs made of dense sentences are themselves dense and become harder to read. Reflect on the structure of your own comment. I suspect you were not intentionally trying to be ironic. Edit:…

The prose is self-consciously different, makes the reader work a little harder. One can almost feel a literary water ripple or pebble garden, stillness and simplicity.

Consider an analogy: the writer knows that a reader readily digests concepts in C++ and purposely pivots to something obscure like Pony. The reader says "this is inconvenient, I need to change my process to digest your work" and the author says "that's the point."

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#156

Post by famahar »

delichon wrote: post #56

Desires to consume (create) are thin (thick). Thin: A desire to enjoy a book, video game, movie, musical performance, new technology, love, ... Thick: A desire to make any of the above. The cure for Dementors isn't chocolate, it's becoming a tiny god of creation. Meaning is in making.

I think there's thin consumption and thick. Reality TV and YouTube/Tik-tok shorts being thin. Slow cinema or a documentary being thick. One is primarily entertainment that is easy to digest and acts more as a way to fill the time and quiet thoughts. The other requires deep engagement and confrontation with new ideas and a build up of contemplation through deep prolonged focus.

The first mode of consumption is understandably popular given the amount of noise in the world that distracts us. So many people are trapped in dopamine holes. It's mental withdrawal to try to attempt a sudden switch to thick consumption. They are so opposite of each other.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#157

Post by Kholin »

ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

It's like some kind of meta writing, the writing style is proving what it's talking about.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#159

Post by mplewis »

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #154
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading, I knew someone would comment on it. I actually prefer the style - maybe because my attention span is shot. But I think it’s more because the author made sure each sentence was content heavy. No verbose paragraphs. And paragraphs made of dense sentences are themselves dense and become harder to read. Reflect on the structure of your own comment. I suspect you were not intentionally trying to be ironic. Edit:…

The prose is self-consciously different, makes the reader work a little harder. One can almost feel a literary water ripple or pebble garden, stillness and simplicity. Consider an analogy: the writer knows that a reader readily digests concepts in C++ and purposely pivots to something obscure like Pony. The reader says "this is inconvenient, I need to change my process to digest your work" and the author says "that's…

ok, but there's nothing there. The point of this piece is empty calories.

Re: Thin desires are eating life

#160

Post by mplewis »

chairmansteve wrote: post #128
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #47

I can't help but feel that this article was written in a format that is the textual equivalent of thin desires… Every sentence is separated into its own paragraph, like each one is supposed to be revelatory (or maybe tweet-worthy). It's pretty common design knowledge that if you try to emphasize everything, you end up emphasizing nothing. The result is that reading the article feels choppy, and weirdly unsatisfying,…

Still.... the message has value.

Not really.
Post reply on HN