Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41199196

by jpolitzki • 2 years ago

5 13 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Just curious. Will help me with a project I'm working on too.

I started a blog about 20 years ago to organise ideas while writing my final paper in a photography bfa program. It had to do recycling stuff to make photographs. I never stopped writing the blog, it keeps me sane, it keeps me aware of I have done and what I have yet to do. I read it a lot, to get back om track.

muzani• 2 years ago

I rant a lot about startups. Facebook. LinkedIn. Instagram. Hacker News. Blogs. Work. Anywhere I just happen to be.

I'm not really trying to influence anyone. I just think they're a fun problem. Idle games are a nice mathematical problem, but not a practical one. Startups are by nature, very non-linear. It throws all the linear people off. Much of the world is wrong about them, even the experts. Every now and then, you encounter someone who isn't wrong. But you have to write about it to encounter them.

I guess it's similar to how astronomy is a hobby for some.

purple-leafy• 2 years ago

I don’t write on the internet. But I write notes on my phone, and I code alot if that counts. I write about ideas, goals, programs, things I want to happen

sk11001• 2 years ago

Mostly to myself as a tool to help my thought process and mental health. I don't feel like I have anything interesting enough to share more widely, and my opinion and writing style change often so there's a good chance that a year or two after publishing anything online I will hate it and/or disagree to some extent.

vunderba3• 2 years ago

True - it also can be intriguing to go back to your earlier writings as they are the closest thing we have to a mental "time capsule", like looking at old faded photographs of yourself.

hasoleju• 2 years ago

I enjoy writing. It's the work I like most. The best moment is finishing a piece. The most regular piece I write is a monthly retrospective. I write about topics that I encountered at work. Mostly in a personal style also reflecting on my thoughts about different topics. To keep me accountable I sent this retrospective to a few colleagues each month at the last day of the month.

authorfly• 2 years ago

I write fiction when inspired (involves a lot of editing and futurism thinking for me).

I write here when I feel passionate or know the area to some degree. I don't tend to edit or formulate these comments super carefully.

I write prolifically, mostly privately, about my startup and our thesis. Here is an example written on the spot about why I changed to writing:

Whereas before I launched, I made many powerpoints, or designs in photoshop, or graphs of predicted revenue with unit economics, I find those activities far less enjoyable with a real functioning, selling startup. The issue is that you tend to underachieve your expectations and it's exhausting to design stuff with an iteration as compared to the complete freedom of designing something from scratch.

In many ways the most enjoyable part of my startup was the first 8 months - from 1 month after launch (when I began seeking funding) it became stressful. Would I get it. Then, how would we adapt. Would this revenue source or partnership work. When will the money come in for cashflow. Do we hire them. You stop meeting new people in the idea phase and enjoying it because unlike the first time, you realise 95% will have quit in a years time. The first time, the first 8 months, for me I formed great relationships, found someone I laughed with, and believed in most peoples businesses. Being part of that cohort was special. It's just different once you start. The reality hits you. You prefer the company of your own pen, your previous thoughts, your belief and expanding your vision, because you realise other elements of the startup world are often just passing by for a moment. That and it's sad to see your friends businesses fail. You want to support them. It can be awkward if you are still going. You certainly lose the group bond of an early stage cohort when most fall back to jobs or move. If I could relive those first 8 months - when I had not earned a penny or won any pitch competition, but was coding fervently by night, designing by day, sharing in excitement with peers, supporting them as they cried on my shoulder with anxiety before their first pitch - I so would.

joe8756438• 2 years ago

I find writing a good way to learn and share. I write about my experience running a small farm. It's a process that helps me appreciate the death part of growing new life.

https://hedgerider.substack.com

vunderba3• 2 years ago

Appreciate these kinds of modest blogs about niche topics (well for Hacker News anyway). I read your article about Pecking Order. As a child, I remembered hearing a crazy story about how some poultry farms would fit their chickens with "rose-tinted glasses" in order to help disguise the sight of blood to mitigate potential violence within the flock.

mikewarot• 2 years ago

I persistently push a few ideas, in hopes that they catch on, here and elsewhere. Every time it's a new variation on a theme, looking for better, easier, analogies.

Capability Based Security / Multilevel Security / Ending Ambient Authority in Operating Systems -- We solved computer security in the 1970s, this whole house of cards fragility underlying civilization doesn't have to exist.

Data diodes -- One way network links, with no physical link in the opposite direction. Makes it possible to monitor a network, without ANY risk of it getting hacked.

BitGrid -- my idea for a compute fabric which is 50/50 genius or stupid

I try not to rant here... DanG has enough work... some days are better than others. That's what Twitter, Facebook, et al are for.

I used to use Reddit a lot, until their unforgivable sin. I really miss Reddit.

vunderba3• 2 years ago

I write relatively frequently, but I’m at a stage in life where I realize I’m incapable of focusing on a single domain. My posts span from topics like:

- The Art of Windows 95 Pranks https://specularrealms.com/2023/07/20/the-lost-art-of-window...

- Parodies of Old Testament Biblical Figures https://mordenstar.com/blog/bible-stories

- Creation of the Collapse Sort Algorithm https://specularrealms.com/2023/07/10/collapse-sort

I’m objectively terrible at understanding how to cultivate an audience and it doesn't help that my range is so divergent that I’m not entirely confident a relevant target demograph even exists. I prefer to think of writing as analogous to periodically tossing messages in a bottle into the sea hoping that if I throw enough of them I’ll eventually get fined by the EPA.

TLDR: OP, writing that isn't read still has some intrinsic value because ultimately writing is a craft.

beezlebroxxxxxx• 2 years ago

I write fiction. I would highly recommend it to everyone, even if those stories are just for yourself. Writing fiction makes you extremely sensitive to the means and impact of how you present your story's information. When you approach character, you come face to face with how much you understand someone (anyone at all really); well written characters have well written reasons for their actions. You will become obsessed (in a good way) with the ways that the reasons we tell ourselves about why such and such or so and so is precisely that way are so important. Writing fiction and characters changes how you look at people off the page.

imvetri• 2 years ago

I write. With pen and paper.

Started this habit 5 years back, because if I do anything else, I get brain dead.

I also believe in a singularity concept that someone will build a comouter product that will make your work instead of you doing you work. So to skill myself ahead, I stopped learning programming related and started writing and gives an upper hand.

Writing is healthier as you use your hand in the direction you control. Whereas digital devices, forces the input, plus the light from the devices creates a new universe in your head.

Discussion: Do you write? What about? Why?

Related Stories