[HN Gopher] How We Read Now
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How We Read Now
Author : vitabenes
Score : 31 points
Date : 2022-09-30 19:56 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (charlesschifano.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (charlesschifano.substack.com)
| nottorp wrote:
| Popup asking me to subscribe to the newsletter with no visible
| way to close it. Could not read the article.
| fedeb95 wrote:
| What you say about some writing today is true, but beware of the
| bubble effect of social networks and the internet: not everyone
| reads or writes like you do, and just because the set of people
| famous now doesn't intersect with those still writing and reading
| conventional books doesn't tell you anything about the future.
| Truth is, bad writing has always been wrote, there was throwaway
| writing also in ancient Rome for instance, which was something
| like (but not quite) our newspapers. And again, newspapers came,
| book persisted. Smartphones came... books are persisting.
| falcolas wrote:
| What's more important from this article, to me, is that things
| that are written today are not stable - they can and do change
| as the engagement with them is measured and interpreted.
| the_af wrote:
| But are _books_ malleable, though?
|
| Are we comparing articles, opinions and news (mostly
| impermanent, at least by intention) with books and treatises
| (mostly permanent)? Or is this about how we index supposedly
| permanent stuff, i.e. "the library" where we store it?
|
| I'm confused because the article starts with Herodotus and
| the alleged elegance and permanence of his works; but
| Herodotus was a historian, not an influencer. We still have
| historians and writers in this day and age; aren't their
| works as "permanent"?
| falcolas wrote:
| Ebooks are absolutely malleable. New versions and patches
| are applied behind the scenes by publishers on a regular
| basis. And less frequently, these books are removed from
| publication completely, including pulling them from
| readers.
|
| And given that even physical books have multiple releases
| with changes, they are not exactly written in stone either.
|
| Whether this should be allowed is a topic in and of itself.
| the_af wrote:
| But by your own admission, ebooks are malleable in the
| same sense that books always were: later editions fixing
| typos, removing or adding chapters, even dealing with
| censorships issues! This was also true in Herodotus'
| time. People in ancient times also had to deal with
| censorship, only it was enforced by sword or fire instead
| of by removing from digital storage.
|
| It's only made _technically easier_ with ebooks, but this
| is nothing new or extraordinary.
|
| Ebooks are not malleable in the sense I think the author
| meant, of impermanence and of being specifically tailored
| for your living-in-a-bubble preferences. At least not
| now, who knows in the future?
| falcolas wrote:
| I think the notable difference is that ebook alterations
| most often occur without user input (buying a new
| version, downloading a new version) and without notifying
| the user (no alerts, no version increments, or release
| dates).
|
| As for the "tailored for each user", we do have proof
| that some personalization can and is made for ebooks
| (DRM, buyer's name). Is the content itself being
| tailored? I believe it is (with the caveat of I have no
| evidence). I think some censorship for sales to Russia,
| China, et.al. is being done transparently.
| the_af wrote:
| I agree ebook technology could be used for this in
| totalitarian states. But is that the argument of TFA? I
| don't think that's the case he's making, I don't see
| malicious intent in what he describes.
|
| I _think_ my Kindle notifies me when there 's an update
| of a novel. This could of course be subverted. But are we
| ready to claim this is what happens to the majority of
| e-novels? I don't think it is. I'm also willing to bet
| that _so far_ no novel in my Kindle has been edited with
| changes specifically tailored for me by an algorithm
| (meaningful text changes, I mean. I don 't mean the book
| cover or DRM or whatever, and neither does the author of
| the TFA. That's why he talks about the _elegance of
| words_ , which has nothing to do with DRM!).
|
| This could change and I absolutely see a dystopian future
| where this can happen. But my understanding is that the
| author is describing the situation _now_ , and I just
| don't see it.
| falcolas wrote:
| > I just don't see it.
|
| Because you've focused on one kind of writing: books. The
| original article was more broadly scoped.
| feoren wrote:
| How We Write Now: pretentiously, with heapings of bullshit,
| apparently.
|
| > as the writing in our century, it seems, comes in sentences
| that are a tad more malleable, with the age of permanence pretty
| much at its end
|
| Does the author even care if this has any resemblance to truth,
| or does he just think it makes him sound smart? The age of
| permanence is at its end? What is he even talking about? Is
| literally anything he says in this article backed by any sort of
| research or evidence?
|
| This is a good example of the Uncanny Valley just before actual
| interesting writing. If it were a few Twitter sentences or a
| snarky YouTube comment it might be boiled down to an actual point
| or two. But clearly this author is too good for such philistine
| methods of writing. No, he's much, much better than you are, you
| Twitter users. He's a _writer_. A writer with absolutely nothing
| to write about, apparently. So he fills an article with almost-
| intelligent-sounding language and unsubstantiated claims and
| derisive assumptions about you and everyone else and "society"
| and "kids these days" and shakes his fist at some cloud we're not
| even sure is really there and fails to make a single rational
| point along the way. And then he preemptively insults you for not
| reading the whole thing, as if this somehow proves him right.
| the_af wrote:
| I think the article definitely overstates its case.
|
| It's not true (or common, at least) that you can discover
| anything by skimming through random shelves in a library.
| Libraries are big and this method is unlikely to expose you to
| the whole range of diverse ideas and works out there; you'll
| just find some, possibly filtered by your own choice of library
| sections.
|
| I do enjoy browsing the shelves of used book stores, though!
| falcolas wrote:
| As stated in TFA - with an emphasis on news articles - article
| titles, and the articles themselves are being modified in real
| time as the metrics collected with the article are aggregated
| and interpreted.
|
| We also see this with titles for YouTube videos, taking down
| social media videos which don't get much attention to create a
| specific narrative, and so forth.
|
| In other words, the media of today is not static, even once
| publicly published.
| jasode wrote:
| _> , comes in sentences that are a tad more malleable, _
|
| _> What is he even talking about?_
|
| The _" malleable"_ is referencing his later paragraphs about
| SEO A/B testing of headlines[1] and dynamically generated text
| of news by A.I. based on your personal data.
|
| Unfortunately, his writing style doesn't make it easy for
| readers to extract his main idea.
|
| [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=a%2Fb+testing+headlines
| pards wrote:
| Here's the TL;DR;
|
| > you'll have a difficult time stumbling upon anything outside
| your current awareness on most screens
| DerekBickerton wrote:
| You can distill the gist of a book down to a few notable
| paragraphs which you then memorize and integrate into your life.
| I've done it with 100s of books. You have to read the entire book
| though, so you can't really cheat here by skimming, then cherry
| picking something interesting. There is a fallacy that whole
| books have to be inculcated into your life. In my case, a
| paragraph will do.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Isn't that what Cliff's Notes do? Are they still a thing?
| That's what got me through High School English lit.
| ar0b wrote:
| I've seen this advertised as a similar option for books and
| podcasts. https://www.blinkist.com/en I haven't used it
| though, so can't vouch for it's effectiveness.
| [deleted]
| jf___ wrote:
| tl;dr
| politelemon wrote:
| Subtle but succinct
| gavinsyancey wrote:
| > If Herodotus can ask 2,400 years ago for immortality while
| striving to prevent his subject from being "forgotten in time",
| then perhaps it is not too presumptuous for me, more than two
| millennium later, to ask you to read for five minutes
|
| If you're going to have a pop-up asking for my email as soon as I
| scroll the page, yes it is.
| Markoff wrote:
| I really dislike newsletter popups which don't have X button to
| close (I'm aware there is hidden unintuitive text button), so I'm
| not gonna read this.
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