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10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

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Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#81

Post by zdc1 »

namanyayg wrote: post #22
hekkle wrote: post #21

[flagged]

It's a terrible side effect of AI that regular people using em dashes in honest writing are labelled as AI. I have a deep love for em and en dashes--you can see heavy usage in my writing that's 10 years older than chatgpt. My love for the dashes hasn't gone, but now I use a double dash instead so I am not immediately labelled as an AI.

It's okay. Give it a few years and every writing style will be being used by AI. We'll then be able to use whatever style we like as no one will be able to tell our writing from AI anyway.

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#82

Post by zeroq »

Totally random rant.

I have a lot to say. About lot of things.

I don't blog because, most of the time, I'm worried about what people might think. Sometimes I speak up in public and people are confused, so - I think - it will only be amplified online. Sometimes I want to share a bit of code, and I'm not sure if the formatting will please everyone. Or naming convention.

But most of all it's putting it all together.

There was this famous kid who only talked in tweets because he had ADHD. Sometimes series of tweets. Like 20 of them. But always in tweets, because that gave him control, and removed - or add, depends on your point of view - constraints.

Anyway - don't be like me. Speak up. Tell people what you want them to hear.

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#83

Post by d-lisp »

josephg wrote: post #20
d-lisp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But is there a real connection between being wrong and not being read or are you yourself wrong ? Furthermore, I doubt there are any chances "right/wrong" applies to aesthetical types of philosophical discussions.

> But is there a real connection between being wrong and not being read or are you yourself wrong ? You don’t need to be a standup comedian yourself to spot bad comedy. > Furthermore, I doubt there are any chances "right/wrong" applies to aesthetical types of philosophical discussions. It’s hard to figure out what readers want because you don’t get direct feedback. But if you spend any amount of time in front of an a…

> You don't need to be a standup comedian yourself to spot bad comedy.

I am not a native english speaker, I don't know anything about humourous form of language in that tongue.

Charisma depends on your audience, and audiences can differ quite a lot. There is no "right/wrong" because what please you as an audience may be considered wrong by another one. "Writing in a more engaging way" aka changing your conceptions of what is right/wrong in order to conform to the current cultural supremacia that is built up everyday by pushing some kind of fast-food culture or idk.

Your story is interesting, and I don't understand how you could be surprised : people that go to clowning classes can share the same taste about what is good/bad ? That's not a very surprising fact ! If you had told me that they were people from different cultures ...

Do you think Baudelaire cared about engagement ? You talked like there were no way taste could dramatically change to the point "ugly" is becoming "good" or vice-versa. Some of the writers and artists I like the most braved the taste™ of the different hegemonic culture of their time, and just trusted their own intuition of what they did want to express, say, create.

Marcel Duchamp is a great example of how a mid level joke can change the art world suddenly (and people's taste with it).

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#84

Post by tehjoker »

GPerson wrote: post #5

“It's redundant to say "I think" at any point in an opinion piece.” “But is there still value in human produced writing? Subjectively, yes. Objectively? I'm not sure. I think there's a lot of personal value in writing though.” There is value because I felt compelled to engage, but if it turns out you’re a bot then I’ll feel cheated and less likely to read other blog posts.

how will people sharpen their thinking if they don't write their own words? the value in human writing even with llms remains almost the same. you won't get better stuff without it

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#85

Post by dSebastien »

I've been having fun with my blog for many years. And now it's a big source of revenue for me. Still, I treat it almost the same way as before: a place where I get to share my ideas and discoveries.

The sheer act of writing helps me structure my thoughts and helps others grow. Win win!

https://dsebastien.net

What I did a while ago was splitting notes and articles: https://notes.dsebastien.net

Publishing unpolished notes is a great way to remove needless pressure

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#86

Post by nunez »

The beginning of this article neatly captures why writing your own thoughts -- as difficult as this can be sometimes -- is so crucial. One of my biggest fears from the unchecked proliferation of AI is society deciding that writing "the old way" should go the way of cursive and mentally calculating tips, that is, into the archives.

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#87

Post by imp0cat »

troad wrote: post #76
a_bonobo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related, I think people have stopped.... reacting on the internet? I've been part of the X/Twitter to Bluesky migration and people often mention how 'quiet' Bluesky is. I think that's not due to algorithmic intervention of product design etc., I think people are just tired. The novelty of shouting at strangers on the internet has worn off - how many internet fights have we gotten into that did nothing in the end exce…

This is relatable. I often find myself starting a reply on here, really thinking it through as I type it out, and then hitting delete on what I just wrote. Sometimes I even hit submit, and then delete a few moments later. It's just hard to justify engaging. Worst case, I get a fight on my hands with someone who's as dogmatic as they are wrong, which is both frequent and also a complete waste of my time. (A tech reade…

    It's just hard to justify engaging.
Well, if your try and force yourself to engage with multiple people, the site won't let you post that many comments in such a short time period. Which, overall, is a good thing I believe.

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#89

Post by nunez »

wj wrote: post #63
pastel8739 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if having an audience isn’t the goal?

I saw this Carl Jung quote shared on Substack recently. "Loneliness does not come from having no people around you, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to you"." I'm using writing as an outlet for an active mind these days. Thoughts that seem important to me and need to come out even if there is nobody there to read them.

Precisely why I maintain a diary. It listens to all of my thoughts, sans judgement. One of the best decisions I've ever made. Wish I did this years ago

Re: 10 years of writing a blog nobody reads

#90

Post by nunez »

d-lisp wrote: post #17

When I write in my native tongue I avoid mentionning myself and try to disappear from the text; "I", "me", "my" is forbidden and also I try to compress sentences into the smallest most precise set of words — being precise and concise is the funniest writing game.

Good idea. This strengthens your position and forces you to be more creative with how it's expressed.
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