It would be awesome to see something like this with code - on hackathons especially.
agreed. The doomed feature highlighting everything that would be cut would be invaluable.
Watch pg write an essay in real time
41–50 of 70 posts
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#42It would be awesome to see something like this with code - on hackathons especially.
That would probably be insightful, but at least we have commits.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#43pg actually posted this himself, 1769 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495336
That was on Etherpad. I wondered how the same text ended up on Stypi and how they are related. I found this:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/09/yc-funded-stypi-is-etherpad...
I guess pg exported his text from Etherpad and gave it to the Stypi team.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#44Is there a way to verify this is actually Paul Graham writing, not someone else who reenacted it based on the published essay?
I guess I'd answer the question with a cui bono question. Why would someone of Paul Graham's standing need to fake this? What would be his incentive to do so? He has nothing to gain from faking it. And I can't think of anyone else who stands to gain, either.
Occam's Razor explanation is that he just thought it would be cool to show.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#45This is fantastic. I've been an addict of http://reddit.com/r/artisanvideos for quite a while, because there's something fascinating and enlightening about watching artisans perform their work (for example, Alexis Ohanian designing the Hipmunk bellhop logo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYEQpwduyPU ). It's especially interesting to note that there are few, if any, words in the entire essay that he didn't edit multi…
Everyone revises their work, many times over. But yes the great authors do as well. I think this tool is cool for that reason. “I have rewritten–often several times–every word I have ever written. My pencils outlast their erasers.” -- Vladimir Nabokov But are you really trying to compare a bullet-point style blog post (not really an essay) to Shakespeare, Hugo, or Dickens?
Of course not.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#46Is there a way to verify this is actually Paul Graham writing, not someone else who reenacted it based on the published essay?
Yes. The essay links to the stypi: http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone revises their work, many times over. But yes the great authors do as well. I think this tool is cool for that reason. “I have rewritten–often several times–every word I have ever written. My pencils outlast their erasers.” -- Vladimir Nabokov But are you really trying to compare a bullet-point style blog post (not really an essay) to Shakespeare, Hugo, or Dickens?
Of course not.
I say go ahead and compare. Shakespeare and Dickens were both considered highly-commercialized and not art in their time. We already see pg's incredible value as a writer.
And what does the format matter? If it did, we would disregard haikus as poetry just because they can fit into tweets.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#48The interesting part about watching this isn't watching it being written. It's watching it being edited. What to leave on the cutting room floor is always the hardest part, and Stypi's "Doomed" feature does a great job of showing you how someone comes to the decision to self-edit.
Agreed, speaking as someone who's just reached the 30 hour mark on my current round of edits to a novel.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#49For a roll-your-own version of this, you can use the 'script(1)' shell command, the timing argument, console editor of your choice, and 'scriptreply(1)'.
Script is a Linux utility which makes a typescript of a terminal session. Traditionally this was mostly of use for shell sessions which didn't involve full-screen (ncurses) utilities, as the cursor-movement characters would typically present a jumbled mash on your screen.
Using the '-t' (or '--timing') arguments sends timing between movements to stderr, or the specified file. With this, you can then replay a typescript file, with the timing information, to show what was actually presented on screen. An optional argument varies the replay speed.
I've made use of this to log and replay serial console activity (available on most servers through IPMI or related hands-off / lights-out management tools), which can be both instructive and helpful in documenting steps.
Further fun may be had by playing the output of scriptreplay through the phosphor(6x) X11 screensaver hack.
Re: Watch pg write an essay in real time
#50pg actually posted this himself, 1769 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=495336
Which would be Thu Feb 26, 2009. Or 4.84 years ago. Or 58.2 months, or 252 weeks ago.
Sometimes HN's date indications are less than useful.