[HN Gopher] More people should write (2012)
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       More people should write (2012)
        
       Author : jsomers
       Score  : 126 points
       Date   : 2023-11-16 01:30 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jsomers.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jsomers.net)
        
       | adamquek wrote:
       | Insightful. Too bad the author apparently stopped writing for 10
       | years now.
        
         | tea-coffee wrote:
         | The author just recently published a nice piece in the New
         | Yorker [1].
         | 
         | 1 = https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/20/a-coder-
         | consid...
        
         | ketanhwr wrote:
         | He still writes[0], albeit not on his blog, but for New Yorker,
         | The Atlantic and the likes.
         | 
         | [0] https://jsomers.net/#writing
        
       | hasoleju wrote:
       | As someone who just started writing regularly a few weeks ago
       | this piece is very encouraging!
       | 
       | I'm very curious if I will be able to make writing a habit. In
       | the past I often quit new behaviors after a few months.
       | 
       | I discovered this quitting behavior a year ago and since I'm
       | aware of it I found a lot of examples where this happened in my
       | past. Now I see everything I start as part of a big experiment to
       | test which things stick. So that I can learn which properties of
       | a habit make it stick with me.
        
         | hypertexthero wrote:
         | I'm the same way, I think.
         | 
         | It's like the movie Groundhog Day.
         | 
         | Every moment is a new start, and you keep starting over and
         | over again and trying to finish or to improve your navigation
         | of a messy, random river that is life.
         | 
         | A piece of writing, a project, a trip to see friends is usually
         | interrupted by life. And there's never that perfect time for
         | you to do the work. Perfection is a memory of the past.
         | 
         | We need to do things in between, simultaneously with all the
         | mess, and keep starting over and over.
        
         | vonjuice wrote:
         | Hello, I'm someone who's been through that and I'm "on the
         | other side" in the sense that I did stick to it. I wrote this
         | and I hope you find it helpful:
         | https://medium.com/@vonjuice/4-important-words-for-writing-c...
         | 
         | > Now I see everything I start as part of a big experiment to
         | test which things stick. So that I can learn which properties
         | of a habit make it stick with me.
         | 
         | This is wise. In addition to watching the properties of the
         | object, which could be considered static, be mindful of the
         | properties in yourself and how these interact with the former,
         | because yours are dynamic and can be developed as a skill, so
         | you learn how to make beneficial habits stick more regardless
         | of their perceived properties.
        
       | narinxas wrote:
       | the more people out there that write, the less writtings by
       | people are worth
       | 
       | scarcity never creates value, but it always incresases it
       | 
       | but also: the more pople have written, the cheaper text and AI
       | bot training become
       | 
       | which makes me feel in a funny situation, the more I write, the
       | better I get at it, but it also makes it simpler for AIs bots to
       | learn my style and make it worthless by the inverse-scarcity
       | phenomenon
        
         | kingkongjaffa wrote:
         | Writing has a double value though, it's intrinsically valuable
         | to the writer themselves to illicit better thinking. it's also
         | valuable as form of communication and collaboration.
        
         | clircle wrote:
         | Are you trying to convince people to spend less time writing?
         | Ive never disagreed with a comment more than this one
        
           | narinxas wrote:
           | I'm asking a question without an answer
        
         | camel-cdr wrote:
         | Why should one care about "worth"? If more people write then
         | there will be more bad and more good writing. (good/bad in
         | terms of personal enjoyment from reading)
        
         | reg_dunlop wrote:
         | Taking your argument, perhaps the thing that is being made
         | scarce, through the act of writing, is ignorance
         | 
         | Which might have served us better before now
        
         | tene80i wrote:
         | This only follows if the only value/worth you consider is
         | economic value, ie for trade. Which would exclude much of what
         | people value: creativity, scientific knowledge, insights for
         | living, personal growth etc. Obviously those have economic
         | value in certain ways, but it's not their only value.
        
           | tuatoru wrote:
           | Yes, getting better at communicating clearly and effectively
           | is worth the time for social reasons. Aesthetic reasons can
           | be important too.
        
             | jodrellblank wrote:
             | How would one know they are getting better at communicating
             | clearly and effectively? Compare with code or drawing where
             | mistakes are instantly seen. Writing doesn't have that, and
             | if you read back your own writing you always know what you
             | were thinking. Who has got time to read what you write,
             | from an outside perspective, and reply with what they think
             | you said, without getting involved in whether they
             | dis/agree or dis/like?
             | 
             | Maybe there's a website in that - parrot.me where you post
             | and other people reply only with paraphrasing what you said
             | back to you.
        
           | narinxas wrote:
           | i'm just exactly at that "moment in life" where it's either
           | 'make' money (i.e. collect it from others using trade) or
           | recieve welfare (ask for donations, beg on the streets, call
           | parents...)
        
             | vonjuice wrote:
             | I think cooking is a good analogy. You may have no desire
             | to get into the food industry, but having cooking skills is
             | good for you (and potentially those around you) regardless.
        
         | ducharmdev wrote:
         | This is a coldly economic take. Does the sole motivation of
         | writing have to be for the consumption of others?
        
         | hawski wrote:
         | Scarcity depends on the amount of openly published writing. You
         | can publish only parts of your work or publish it to limited
         | audience.
        
         | causality0 wrote:
         | If someone asks me if they should do something I do, I always
         | lay out the pros and cons of doing what I do, and try to give
         | them the questions whose answers they need to know in order to
         | decide if they are the type of person who should. Why are there
         | so many articles by writers telling other people they should be
         | writing instead of telling them why they might or might not? I
         | would never presume that any of my hobbies or habits is so
         | universally beneficial.
        
           | afrieirham wrote:
           | > Why are there so many articles by writers telling other
           | people they should be writing instead of telling them why
           | they might or might not?
           | 
           | I guess it's a "better" title in a sense that it gets people
           | to read (ie clickbaity)
           | 
           | A "pros and cons" article vs "here's why you should do X"
           | elicit different emotions, which I'd argue, the latter is
           | better for attention grab.
           | 
           | But I do agree with you though, when someone asks me for
           | advices, I always try to give them context.
           | 
           | I also try to understand where the "advisor" comes from when
           | I see radical advices out there. Even if I don't agree with
           | it, at least I can understand the reason behind it.
        
         | tehjoker wrote:
         | the more people that exercise, the less exercise is valuable
        
       | kingkongjaffa wrote:
       | I love reading and writing. Do you all have any advice for
       | writing more and writing better?
        
         | tene80i wrote:
         | Depends what kind of writing you want to be better at, but for
         | fiction Stephen King's 'On Writing' is both interesting and
         | useful. As for 'more', what's worked for me is to make a
         | routine for it.
        
         | tuatoru wrote:
         | It's probably like photography: just do it a lot. Write about
         | your home, your neighborhood. Edit: also read other writers'
         | work, of course.
         | 
         | In novel writing there's very old advice: plan to throw away
         | your first million words. Actually, that's good advice
         | generally, not just for fiction.
        
         | smokel wrote:
         | It depends :)
         | 
         | Do you have an idea what stands in the way of your ambitions?
         | 
         | Here are some suggestions (dang, I'm starting to sound like
         | ChatGPT here):
         | 
         | 1. Try an accountability partner and call them once a week to
         | discuss progress.
         | 
         | 2. Share your work, preferably to an audience you trust, and
         | nourish feedback.
         | 
         | 3. Experiment and train creativity. Write a short story, write
         | with a pen, write technical documentation, write code.
         | 
         | Hope this helps.
        
         | surprisetalk wrote:
         | Some great advice from Ben Kuhn on how & why of writing:
         | 
         | [1] https://www.benkuhn.net/writing
         | 
         | I also just published some structural tips for writing quickly
         | at high quality:
         | 
         | [2] https://taylor.town/pseudoprose
         | 
         | Make sure to create a low-friction writing environment for
         | yourself! Whether it's a notebook or text-editor, you should be
         | able to get your idea onto paper within 90 seconds of having
         | it.
        
         | inglor_cz wrote:
         | At the risk of sounding smugly, just write. Perhaps ask someone
         | to read your texts, but don't rely too much on random critics.
         | Individual people have their own taste and pet peeves; what is
         | unreadable for one may be enjoyable for others.
         | 
         | Writing is like hiking or skiing. While there are some
         | important rules how not to kill yourself, you can only learn it
         | by doing.
         | 
         | Also, read a lot, ESPECIALLY works by people who have a good
         | command of your language (IDK if you are native English
         | speaker; I am not). Writing style is a bit contagious. Don't
         | worry if you occassionally sound like someone else, this kind
         | of contagion is really unavoidable if you read a lot.
         | 
         | I would say that the optimal ratio of R:W time is about 5-6:1.
        
         | GeoAtreides wrote:
         | Read and think about you read.
         | 
         | You can't get better at writing without reading as much as you
         | can, as widely as you can.
        
           | jodrellblank wrote:
           | Possibly the thing I do most is read comments on the
           | internet, I'm not convinced it makes me a better writer, tbh.
        
             | GeoAtreides wrote:
             | I'm sorry, I thought it was obvious I meant read books,
             | good books.
        
         | OliveMate wrote:
         | Earlier this week I picked up a copy of On Writing Well by
         | William Zinsser, a style guide on what he believes makes for
         | good informal writing. It's yet to reflect in any of my
         | comments but I'd recommend it if you struggle with being
         | concise.
         | 
         | It does have a heavy focus on American writing and it's akin to
         | a longform opinion piece, but I wouldn't let that get in the
         | way of what makes for an accessible and pleasant read.
         | 
         | edit: What also helps is to sit down and write. Make a blog and
         | even if you don't have a specific topic to focus on, just write
         | and keep at it. Take a note of how you write, the style that
         | you naturally develop with all of your quirks; do you overuse
         | commas, do you routinely break up sentences with a dash or a
         | semicolon? Does it have a sense of flow?
         | 
         | Before long something will click in your head, you'll become
         | more cognisant of the world around you, and your head will be
         | screaming at you to write certain thoughts and ideas down.
        
           | jyunwai wrote:
           | I second the recommendation for "On Writing Well." I read
           | this many years ago, and the book had a strong positive
           | influence on my writing (serving me very well when later
           | doing editorial work, writing articles, and writing
           | summaries, emails, and reports week-to-week).
           | 
           | George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" essay is
           | a short essay that shares many of the pieces of advice [1].
           | The main principle that I've taken from both is that you will
           | be more effective at getting your points across to the
           | reader, if you optimize your writing for ease of
           | comprehension, instead of attempting to sound sophisticated
           | with unnecessarily fancy words. This is especially helpful in
           | work environments, where getting your points across clearly
           | can save yourself from delays due to confusion.
           | 
           | I would also strongly recommend reading good writing often.
           | Becoming a regular reader of a well-written newspaper or
           | magazine is great for learning new ways to write down
           | observations or advance a point of argumentation, and I've
           | also personally found it enjoyable to have a broader
           | awareness of what's going on in the world.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-
           | foundation/orwel...
        
             | ggpsv wrote:
             | Any magazines that you recommend?
        
               | randcraw wrote:
               | I've found Harper's and The New Yorker educational for
               | good composition and writing style.
        
               | jyunwai wrote:
               | I share randcraw's recommendation of Harper's and The New
               | Yorker, as I've subscribed to both and found their
               | writing quality to be excellent. If you'd like to try
               | them out, I recommend reading some of the past "Easy
               | Chair" columns in Harper's for short-to-medium-length
               | reflective essay articles. In The New Yorker, "A Reporter
               | At Large" features are excellent (as they are thorough
               | and often impactful to shaping current events upon
               | publication), though the writing style is relatively
               | lengthy.
               | 
               | If you like science reporting, The Atlantic has excellent
               | reporters with this focus. The Scientific American and
               | The New Scientist are also worth considering (along with
               | the news and analysis-focused articles in the journals
               | Nature and Science), though I've personally read The
               | Atlantic more often as I'm also interested in the
               | publication's articles about general topics outside of
               | science reporting.
               | 
               | If you're interested in geopolitics, I highly recommend
               | Foreign Affairs. The authors and contributors typically
               | have interesting backgrounds in government or academia,
               | and the essays are in-depth. Similarly to The New Yorker,
               | the release of certain articles is itself newsworthy
               | (often as senior policymakers of various countries are
               | often guest writers)--as a direct result, the publication
               | is closely read by senior policymakers of different
               | countries. I also recommend The Diplomat as a comparable
               | publication, with a specialized focus on news and
               | analysis about geopolitics in East Asia.
               | 
               | If literary writing interests you, I would also recommend
               | looking into some literary journals, such as The Paris
               | Review, The Baffler, The Hedgehog Review, The Malahat
               | Review, and Ploughshares.
               | 
               | These days, I personally listen to the audio versions of
               | The New Yorker's Reporter At Large segments and The
               | Atlantic's science reporting when I can. For the
               | remaining publications, I typically download the ePub or
               | PDF versions for reading on an e-reader (minus the
               | publications that don't offer their issues in their
               | format), and read just the articles that I find
               | interesting on my commute.
               | 
               | For you personally, I would recommend identifying topics
               | of interests that you are passionate about. You can then
               | try to find high-quality publications about these
               | subjects, which may or may not be on this list. If you're
               | more interested in the focuses of the publications you
               | read, you are more likely to develop a habit of reading
               | well-written articles, which is helpful for improving
               | your own ability to write.
        
         | vonjuice wrote:
         | Allocate a time of the day, every day, for writing. You can
         | spend the time writing whatever comes to mind, working on a
         | story, or staring out the window, or reading _about_ writing.
         | For the latter, I recommend this list:
         | 
         | https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/03/advice-on-writing/
        
         | PikelEmi wrote:
         | I do a daily writing exercise that is to write at least 1000
         | words, whatever comes to mind. No editing. Just let it flow and
         | see where it takes you. When you get used to it (which you will
         | do very quick) you will be surprised how it improves your
         | writing skills.
        
         | anon012012 wrote:
         | I actually composed a free ebook about writing advice from many
         | major writers.
         | 
         | https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSMJ_VIYylRcKIpb...
         | 
         | Hopefully this should help.
        
       | Apocryphon wrote:
       | Is to post different from writing? Considering that so much of
       | online user-generated content these days are posts, comments,
       | replies. I'm not even talking about fluffy exhibitionist social
       | media posts or incoherent comments on news articles. I mean
       | supposedly more highbrow comments on special interest aggregator
       | sites such as this. Forums and bulletin boards.
       | 
       | Does that constitute writing? Or are we just creating more
       | ephemeral chaff?
        
         | pilgrim0 wrote:
         | I think posting is, in general, an extension of dialogues, i.e
         | conversation. Writing involves dialogues, of course, but
         | encompasses a much wider field of styles. Ephemerality of the
         | text does not automatically implies reduced value. You'll get
         | some of the benefits of writing within dialogues but it's
         | limited by the fact there's not much room from digression, so
         | less creative freedom and exploratory potential compared to
         | just actively choosing the subject and style, with no
         | particular audience or pre established context in mind. I
         | regard monologues as an expansion of dialogues (a dialogue
         | participation is sort of a monologue if you think about), and
         | there's a low entry barrier for doing it, can be very enriching
         | and even therapeutical. All in all, I think the author here is
         | talking writing for the sake of writing, which is structured
         | thinking.
        
         | 082349872349872 wrote:
         | Posts can go either way: I would say that some online exchanges
         | have more of an oral cultural character and others have more of
         | a literary cultural character.
         | 
         | (upon reading TFA, it seems it doesn't even care about the
         | oral/literary distinction I had been trying to make; for TFA
         | the important part of posting is the export of thoughts out of
         | one's head, which can be done in either mode?)
        
         | broscillator wrote:
         | As someone who has been doing both daily for a while, yes,
         | they're different.
         | 
         | It's kind of like comparing speaking at a meeting or giving a
         | speech, to talking to a long time friend over coffee, or
         | talking to yourself in the mirror. In the abstract you could
         | say the action is the same, speaking, but the experience as
         | lived is very different.
        
       | photochemsyn wrote:
       | related & useful:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20061078
       | 
       | Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
       | (pragmaticengineer.com)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37033403
       | 
       | Some tactics for writing in public (jvns.ca)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37118883
       | 
       | Writing about what you learn pushes you to understand topics
       | better (addyosmani.com)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19143853
       | 
       | Vim Is Saving Me Hours of Work When Writing Books and Courses
       | (nickjanetakis.com)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854332
       | 
       | Writing a Book with Pandoc, Make, and Vim (keleshev.com)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24628549
       | 
       | Writing a book: is it worth it? (kleppmann.com)
        
       | jheriko wrote:
       | A good, solid and old argument...
       | 
       | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/literature...
        
       | inglor_cz wrote:
       | I love writing. I have more than 1000 articles under my belt and
       | eight books, all in the last 7 years.
       | 
       | Writing helps you discipline your thoughts. All too often,
       | logical gaps or nuggets of ignorance in a seemingly watertight
       | argument only turn up when you commit your thoughts to the paper.
       | (Well, word processor.) And, vice versa, thinking without writing
       | things down tends to be infected with sloppiness.
       | 
       | Write things, if only for yourself and your future self. You may
       | also find out that you have a knack for it. In that case,
       | godspeed.
        
       | BizarreByte wrote:
       | I don't write because writing is tied to some very bad memories.
       | I'm terrified of people reading what I write and humiliating me,
       | it wouldn't be the first time.
       | 
       | Me innermost thoughts remain mine alone as a result.
        
         | broscillator wrote:
         | I find burning pages kinda therapeutic. Give it a try, write
         | your least shareable thoughts and then watch them burn.
        
           | jerrre wrote:
           | How do you you do this in practice?
        
             | SlickNixon wrote:
             | Well-ventilated area, non-flammable container,
             | lighter/matches. Liquor, cigarette, thousand-yard stare
             | optional.
        
             | jodrellblank wrote:
             | You just gave me a sad idea where there are people who
             | exist to adulthood who have never burned paper or seen it
             | burn first-hand. Like city children who have never seen
             | animals, or lakes or seas or oceans, or never seen the
             | stars, deprived of some deeply human experiences. (I grew
             | up with a log fireplace at home, but I also played with
             | friends using a magnifying glass to concentrate sunlight
             | and ignite paper out on the street).
             | 
             | Do you mean "how does one burn a piece of paper" literally?
             | Or, how does that person arrange their life to have a fire
             | regularly?
        
               | mdorazio wrote:
               | My gut reaction was the same, but then I realized that in
               | order to burn anything more substantial than a match on a
               | regular basis I'd have to go to the outdoor grills or
               | something. There's no way to do it in my apartment
               | without setting off a fire alarm.
        
               | medstrom wrote:
               | Will candles set off the fire alarm where you live too?
               | 
               | I'll wager that burning one sheet of paper at a time
               | would be on par with a continuously burning candle.
        
               | 2-718-281-828 wrote:
               | of course, s/he means how to burn a piece of paper
               | without setting the apartment on fire or set off an
               | alarm. it's really funny that your first thought was that
               | they doesn't know how to burn something technically and
               | connect that to children who think a chicken has four
               | legs or cacao milk is produced by brown cows. had me
               | chuckle.
        
               | Tomte wrote:
               | > You just gave me a sad idea where there are people who
               | exist to adulthood who have never burned paper or seen it
               | burn first-hand.
               | 
               | Done that, never again. I thought it would be cool to
               | burn my paper print of some key material. Opened the
               | door, put a lighter to the paper on the landing just a
               | step from the door.
               | 
               | The paper did not burn cleanly as I imagined, and I had
               | soon rather large pieces of burned paper flying inside my
               | apartment. Not burning, luckily, but brittle and becoming
               | ash wherever I tried to catch them or pick them up.
               | 
               | Learned my lesson: Put paper into a fireproof container,
               | then burn it.
        
             | imhoguy wrote:
             | Just write on a sheet of paper, then fold it, put on a
             | ceramic dish plate and burn it with lighter. Make sure you
             | keep a window open and far from anything flammable. Better
             | if you have a fireplace.
        
         | Obscurity4340 wrote:
         | Bro(scillator), u fine. Just respond to that which is evocative
         | to you and you won't be able to stop the words pouring out of
         | you like... Ya you get the analogy ;)
        
         | runjake wrote:
         | I feel you, but you should get over that. You're only hurting
         | yourself.
         | 
         | Counseling with a qualified professional is immensely helpful.
         | With a decent counselor, you could start seeing results almost
         | immediately.
         | 
         | I am rooting for you.
        
       | Obscurity4340 wrote:
       | Dialectical formats and "responding" to shit is seemingly the
       | most I can generally handle. If I was "comfier" I would probably
       | put my heart into it a bit more but I think I do ok on the
       | creating/consuming balance
        
       | mrcsd wrote:
       | I've recently started writing daily, since September. Setting a
       | daily word target was what worked for me, I do at least 1600 a
       | day and try not to write too much more. If you're writing a first
       | draft of around 90k words then it will take _only_ 56 days to get
       | there at 1.6k a day. My realisation that this was actually a
       | pretty small time commitment really helped me finally take the
       | plunge.
       | 
       | This is obviously an old idea, and indeed I'm just copying a
       | similar process to Haruki Murakami's. I definitely recommend his
       | series of essays on being a novelist: Novelist as a Vocation
       | (this really helped me).
       | 
       | On to second draft now and moving from daily word count to number
       | of chapters or paragraphs edited has helped as just a metric for
       | pace. Doesn't mean it's quality writing, just that I have a
       | sensation of movement and progress.
        
         | jyunwai wrote:
         | Related to writing, I also high recommend Murakami's "What I
         | Talk About When I Talk About Running." He wrote this as a
         | memoir centred along running, and he often writes about how his
         | habits of running carries over to other habits in his life,
         | such as writing. I liked this excerpt from the memoir in
         | particular:
         | 
         | "Right now I'm aiming at increasing the distance I run, so
         | speed is less of an issue. As long as I can run a certain
         | distance, that's all I care about. Sometimes I run fast when I
         | feel like it, but if I increase the pace I shorten the amount
         | of time I run, the point being to let the exhilaration I feel
         | at the end of each run carry over to the next day. This is the
         | same sort of tack I find necessary when writing a novel. I stop
         | every day right at the point where I feel I can write more. Do
         | that, and the next day's work goes surprisingly smoothly. I
         | think Ernest Hemingway did something like that. To keep on
         | going, you have to keep up the rhythm. This is the important
         | thing for long-term projects. Once you set the pace, the rest
         | will follow. The problem is getting the flywheel to spin at a
         | set speed--and to get to that point takes as much concentration
         | and effort as you can manage."
        
       | ravenstine wrote:
       | The reason I don't write is that I'm unconvinced that a
       | worthwhile number of people will find my writings and actually
       | read them in 2023.
       | 
       | I'm fine with doing all my writing on HN. If you look at the
       | comments section of my profile, it might as well be a microblog.
        
         | MezzoDelCammin wrote:
         | I just did look. 19k karma is indeed nothing to sneeze at.
         | 
         | Difference is though that in the HN comments it's someone else
         | who picks the topic and time.
         | 
         | Much as I appreciate the discussion here, occasionally I think
         | there's some value in just doing a writeup on a topic. Or, a
         | memory dump. If for no other reason, than for the therapeutic
         | value of cleaning up the mind... And forcing the random musings
         | that make sense in the head through the filter of written
         | language just to see what actually makes sense.
        
         | jodrellblank wrote:
         | The argument in the article does not involve anyone reading
         | your writing: " _That's the promise: you will live more
         | curiously if you write. You will become a scientist, if not of
         | the natural world than of whatever world you care about. More
         | of that world will pop alive. You will see more when you look
         | at it._ "
        
         | jyunwai wrote:
         | I wonder if there is a way to easily export one's own Hacker
         | News comments. It might be useful for you to back your comments
         | up one day, as there can be value in searching through your
         | past writing and also having a backup (which never hurts).
        
           | krapp wrote:
           | Write a script to download them using the Hacker News API.[0]
           | 
           | First, get the user endpoint: https://hacker-
           | news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/<username>.json (ex:
           | https://hacker-
           | news.firebaseio.com/v0/user/jl.json?print=pre...)
           | 
           | then iterate the "submitted" array and make a request to each
           | ID at the item endpoint: https://hacker-
           | news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/<ID>.json (ex: https://hacker-
           | news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/8863.json?print=p...)
           | 
           | Then save each JSON response somewhere. You won't be able to
           | get the content of flagged and banned messages. If you do
           | this more than once you'll also need to keep track of the
           | last ID you downloaded, or the updates endpoint to catch
           | edits, I think, although the readme is a bit vague about how
           | exactly that works.
           | 
           | [0]https://github.com/HackerNews/API
        
           | Tomte wrote:
           | https://github.com/dogsheep/hacker-news-to-sqlite
        
       | jodrellblank wrote:
       | > " _It's like what happens to a room during a game of "I Spy":
       | if your friend spies something red, the red stuff glows._ "
       | 
       | The only I Spy I know is "I spy with my little eye something
       | beginning with...". Is there another common version where people
       | describe the appearance of the thing instead of the spelling of
       | the name?
        
         | privong wrote:
         | Growing up, my brothers and I would play "I spy" by identifying
         | a color. E.g., "I spy with my little eye something that is
         | orange".
        
       | burritofanatic wrote:
       | Your writing has stayed with me, and I occasionally remember bits
       | of your essays many years later. Pleased to see your articles in
       | recent months in the New Yorker. Congrats on being a dad!
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | > write full sentences about themselves and the things they care
       | about.
       | 
       | This is from 2012, when social media had not yet taken over the
       | world. Now we're drowning in a sea of verbiage from people
       | writing about themselves.
        
         | dan-robertson wrote:
         | I think my memory of 2012 must be different from yours, though
         | I'm not exactly sure what 'taken over the world' means.
        
       | yawnxyz wrote:
       | What about people who write for themselves, and somehow end up on
       | the homepage of Hacker News? You'll end up getting roasted by
       | people like this guy: > Disagree. Writing a blog post is like
       | getting on stage. You need to come on stage with a dream that
       | you're going to dazzle the audience with your show. Your blog is
       | so interesting that it's worth the time to read it!
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38324486
        
       | imhoguy wrote:
       | I don't write because: 1) I don't find writing in my native
       | language interesting, 2) I am not fluent enough to write in
       | English, 3) I think I would feel quite embarrassed to share my
       | views under my name.
       | 
       | But I am contemplating about writing under pseudonyms with GPT
       | proofreader assistant. Actually I do it right now with HN but
       | without AI part.
        
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