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Comment by mateo- | Hacker News Reader

> A lean Montrealer, with a gentle yet poised intensity that one might classify as medium-energy, Picard came at the question of vim and vigor from a near-cosmic vantage. His office, high above the Heights, had a commanding view down the Hudson, a receding sun-blanched shorescape of skyscrapers and tidal swirl that lent his pronouncements an oracular air.

Did this assignment have a minimum word count? I know it's the New Yorker, but gah I couldn't handle it

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I get frustrated with the reaction to New Yorker pieces on here. Yes, a New Yorker piece is going to be long and have backstory.

Their feature pieces are like novellas of non-fiction. Many get republished into books, that receive acclaim like the amazing Coming into the Country[1].

It doesn't skim as well as some business insider article that is just a list of bullet points, but it was never meant to.

https://www.amazon.ca/Coming-into-Country-John-McPhee/dp/037...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/06/20/coming-into-th...

Exactly. If you're going into a New Yorker article you should know what to expect.

I very much enjoy the opportunity to use my right brain for a change. The style lends itself to 'feeling' the subject as much as describing it. This article especially invokes a kind of dreamy inexactitude that perfectly matches with the semi woo of the underlying topic. Intuition is the gift, reason the faithful servant - a view that most programers will disagree with imo.

The New Yorker has some absolutely great pieces and a huge budget for journalism, but that said, I find their writers self-indulge a bit more than I find pleasant. The Walrus doesn't have as many block buster journalistic pieces, but the writing is strong and strikes a better balance between flourish and meat.

While I agree with you, not every writer is as good as John McPhee.

Most of the pieces don't earn the frippery they're draped in.

I've studied English and by jingo I'm going to put that education to use! Concordantly! Vis-a-vis! Ergo! Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniosis!

(I love how that last one is even in my browser's spell checker)

Asbestos lung?

Normally the question is vim and emacs not vim and vigor.

Being nitpicky it should be vim or emacs right?

If you go for both, there's no question!

Seriously, anyone looking for actual tips to increase energy can skip the article. It's self-indulgent rambling.

While we're bashing the style: Is 'scrip' really what they meant in "If a patient says, ‘I want more energy,’ maybe the doctor should just write a scrip for methamphetamine"? I just checked the dictionary to confirm, and 'scrip' is definitely a financial term; surely they meant 'script'?

Or is this a situation where they flaunt common practice to be quirky, like their superfluous umlauts?

I’ve heard the term before - and it’s in MW. Check out definition 3 here:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrip

Short for prescription. I'm old enough to remember it being used. It doesn't seem to be in circulation as a term now

I think “scrip” is short for “prescription”, given the context.

Scrip is probably a typo of Script, an abbreviation for Prescription. Script is a common word in the medical profession. Scrip I've never heard

I always thought of it as currency.

It is possible to qualify as a doctor and be unsure if the abbreviation for prescription is Px or Rx Now you can just check on the internet but back in the day it's something that's apparently so basic and assumed that you could be too embarrassed to ask.

Here you go: https://rt-wiki.bestpractical.com/wiki/Scrip

Here in the Philadelphia region, about 100 miles away from NYC, "scrip" as short for "prescription" is definitely ubiquitous.

I really hear it a lot since my wife works in the medical field, but I heard it used quite often before that.

Read it on paper and it plays very differently.

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