4 ms·
For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay. And when the write starts with an a
by ubittibu 7y ago
For real, I can’t stand this kind of longform. They take three simple facts and write an article that is more a short essay.
And when the write starts with an accurate description of weather, place or person, “It was a foggy winter day in …”, “we reached a hidden part of the shore”, “is a tall woman with bright expressive eyes" you know you’ll be stuck in a fifteen minutes reading without learning anything.
- tomc1985 7y agoThat's Nautilus for you. Pages of fluff for a few lines of facts... Once upon a time their articles had more substance.
- madez 7y agoDo you actually keep reading? If the first sentence is that way, I immediately close the tab. From the articles about occurrences and domains I have personal knowledge of I learnt not to trust in the factual correctness of media articles. If they on top of that start with a story, I'm off.
- eevilspock 7y agoNot all writing is utilitarian. People in tech, on average, prefer the utilitarian. They also, as a whole, on average, are considered to have below average social skills and below average art skills. Their coincidence is not a coincidence. > To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... For an introduction to South Asian "toilet technology", both very accurate and very humorous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKkryfdtMNQ [EDIT: also quite humorous is how this is getting down-voted into the toilet. Is it defensiveness? Angry denial?]
- VonGallifrey 7y agoWhy do you wonder about "down votes" on a comment that basically insults people in tech on a forum primarily visited by people in tech.
- eevilspock 7y agoWhy would tech people, who pride themselves on objectivity, find it insulting? Do tech people deny that they, AS A WHOLE, ON AVERAGE, have below average social skills and below average art skills? A lot of men in tech also deny that current tech culture is sexist, often misogynist. That's male objectivity for you. Perhaps a similar "biased objectivity" is at play here. It's all a bit ironic given that the two comments to which I replied are essentially insulting the author of the article and anyone who appreciates things beyond the utilitarian. They are essentially saying, "It's garbage. It's worthless."
- RockIslandLine 7y agoMy social skills are just fine. You don't waste my time, and I won't waste yours. If you ain't got nothing to say, don't waste my time.
- danharaj 7y agoSir, this is a Denny's.
- tech-culture 7y agoMaking broad generalizations about humans, as we all know, can be really dangerous, prone to eggregious errors, and large groups of people often fail to enjoy one-size-fits-all style treatment. Humans really are THAT diverse, even when you deal with relatively homogenous ethnic subgroups. That said, it still holds true that effluent human output aggregates according to a certain undeniable smell, blameless to any individual, when you step back and let a social order chug away, and sniff the fumes they produce. Sort of like a poultry farm. The chickens aren't trying to smell like chicken shit, but there's almost no way a thousand chickens wouldn't produce the smell of manure, when subjected to the conditions agribusiness often utilizes to farm chickens. Knowing this much, take a hard look at what a technical job asks of the employee. Years spent alone, in silence and solitude, tinkering and fiddling with extremely dry subject matter, usually with dispassionate goals that abstract away from any emotional involvement. Does that sound like something an attractive person would seek out? Does that sound like something a creative person might enjoy? But then, there's the money. Why heap so much value upon tech workers? Because, highly pedantic and uncompromising decision making leads to accurate automation and force multiplication. The cart now leads the horse. All that money. All that prestige. Something extroverts and creative, gregarious people pine for. Why reward these shut-ins? These deformed, mumbling, poorly groomed, bespectacled pick-noses for all the tiddley winks they seem to play with their tin cans and their blinking baubles and their yarn? The money and praise should go to the attractive, the vivacious, the beautiful! The humans! It's just not fair!
- nine_k 7y agoSo, the article about the stuff ancient Romans used instead of toilet paper is an art piece? Well, fine, why not. It's just posted to a wrong forum then. Hence the readers being nonplussed.
- nyolfen 7y agomost people don't click on something titled "What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper" to read an anecdote about a stranger's vacation to denver or the history of toilet paper, hn audience aside
- eevilspock 7y ago> most people or, perhaps, most tech people. Not all tech people, of course, as is evident from other comments on this page. The article was on Nautilus, not The New York Times or Scientific America or Linux Journal.
- house_atr 7y agoI can assure you, you're the only one here being defensive and showing poor social skills.
- jyriand 7y agoI might be wrong but this longform is called "feature article". It's not meant to be for quick consumption. I'm not sure what is happening with our brains, but I find it increasingly difficult to concentrate and appreciate longer writings. Nowadays everything is about getting info in small chunks. No time for meandering flow of thoughts.