In praise of the hundred page idea • Hacker News Board

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#21

Post by awongh » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 7:42 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #12

> Part of why I dislike essay collections is their neverendingness; I’ll read two, three, four essays in a volume and I still can’t cross it off my list. An incomplete task, it becomes a mental weight, an obligation. I’m deprived of the satisfaction of finishing. Not being able to close a book without reading everything in it is a problem. People need to get over this, it's compulsive behavior. You don't have to read…

I've loved kindle samples for this reason. (Although all samples are not the same length) If I get to the end of the sample (which may take an hour to read? - longer than bookstore browsing time) and have enough reasons to continue I'll buy the book.

I've recently run into the opposite problem -I have 20 samples I'd like to finish and 6-8 books I put down that I want to pick back up. I'm starting to lose track.

Also as an aside, kindle library organization UI is really terrible.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#22

Post by asplake » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 7:49 AM UTC

I have written four books in the 60-80 thousand word range and one (a commission) where I had a constraint of 30 thousand words or 100 pages. I know it’s a cliché, but guess which one took me the longest.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#23

Post by tugu77 » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 8:35 AM UTC

Power of LLMs. Bring any book down to as short as you like. Or as long, if that's more your alley.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#24

Post by mafro » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 8:44 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #12

> Part of why I dislike essay collections is their neverendingness; I’ll read two, three, four essays in a volume and I still can’t cross it off my list. An incomplete task, it becomes a mental weight, an obligation. I’m deprived of the satisfaction of finishing. Not being able to close a book without reading everything in it is a problem. People need to get over this, it's compulsive behavior. You don't have to read…

Just noting that this narrative in the post is contrary to the author's own guidelines - where they go into not finishing books (called "DNF"s lol)

https://tracydurnell.com/2023/08/19/my-reading-philosophy-an...

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#25

Post by tacitusarc » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 9:14 AM UTC

tolerance wrote: post #15

I am disappointed. I thought this was about an individual elucidating their own ideas across one hundred pages in a rough manuscript. As far as books go, give me the 300 pagers. Inundate me. I’m ready. It’s time. The internet has betrayed my intellect. 300 pages. Inundate me. I want to read the 300 pager that expands upon the 100-page idea. Inundate me . I’m ready. I’ve had it with the screen. Unless it can point me…

Inundate is a synonym for “overwhelm”. I do not believe one can be ready to be overwhelmed, definitionally.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#26

Post by dominicrose » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 9:21 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #12

> Part of why I dislike essay collections is their neverendingness; I’ll read two, three, four essays in a volume and I still can’t cross it off my list. An incomplete task, it becomes a mental weight, an obligation. I’m deprived of the satisfaction of finishing. Not being able to close a book without reading everything in it is a problem. People need to get over this, it's compulsive behavior. You don't have to read…

Some open-world video games are very long to finish, but they have a primary story/quest that's not too hard to complete, so it doesn't feel bad to stop there. Time is important, watching a series instead of a film is rarely worth it.

Technical books have whole sections you can easily skip until the day you may need it. Non-fiction can be read faster when it's explained in details.

I guess fiction big books are the ones you have to read entirely to be satisfied.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#27

Post by ben_w » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 9:36 AM UTC

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #10

kittikitti wrote: post #9

I heard that you need to condense your idea down to an elevator pitch and that VC's only like founders under 18?

> that VC's only like founders under 18? My apologies if I’m missing the sarcasm — is this a joke? Sure there’s a stereotype of young founders, but where on earth did you hear that they prefer _actual teenagers_?

I assume the missing word is "seconds", as I think "elevator pitch" normally means "30 seconds to 2 minutes".

So: "founders under 18 seconds".

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#28

Post by kome » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 10:27 AM UTC

kind reminder that timothy snyder isn’t held in great regard by other historians, even by right-wing ones—so, basically his own camp. especially on methodological grounds, omer bartov and richard evans have called out his use of chronological juxtaposition, saying it implies connections between events without enough evidence. this, along with other critiques, makes it an entertaining hundred page maybe, but not great value.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#29

Post by richrichie » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 10:49 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #12

> Part of why I dislike essay collections is their neverendingness; I’ll read two, three, four essays in a volume and I still can’t cross it off my list. An incomplete task, it becomes a mental weight, an obligation. I’m deprived of the satisfaction of finishing. Not being able to close a book without reading everything in it is a problem. People need to get over this, it's compulsive behavior. You don't have to read…

Natsume Soseki once said that reading every book from cover to cover is like marrying every girl you fall in love with. I think it was in the book Kusamakura.

A physicist friend of mine changed my life by simply saying that the reader is under no obligation to or has a contract with the author that he needs to read everything the author wrote. I cam across the more poetic Soseki later.

Re: In praise of the hundred page idea

#30

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD » Mon, Dec 23, 2024, 10:56 AM UTC

kome wrote: post #28

kind reminder that timothy snyder isn’t held in great regard by other historians, even by right-wing ones—so, basically his own camp. especially on methodological grounds, omer bartov and richard evans have called out his use of chronological juxtaposition, saying it implies connections between events without enough evidence. this, along with other critiques, makes it an entertaining hundred page maybe, but not great…

Snyder is right-wing? News to me!

(Speaking of right-wing historians, does anyone have thoughts on Richard Pipes? Specifically his book on the Russian Revolution. I found it fascinating, but it has been criticized, and I'm not sure how much credence to give the critiques.)