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Comment by Danieru | Hacker News Reader

It is a writer, who is complaining how people do not read books anymore. He writes lots because writing little is not his goal.

You have no complained that his complaint is too long. His reply might be: that social media has transformed books into tokens. Their content worth nothing more than to provide an identity and tell what message can be explained in a single page. He is lamenting how while promoting his book he is getting interviewed by people who have only read the marketing sales points. How during consideration for a award the committee will only evaluate a synopsis.

Overall, a article worth the read. Yes it is long. Yes it is not concise. Yes it is not a great article to retweet to your followers and establish your credentials with crowd X.

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> He writes lots because writing little is not his goal

It doesn't matter to write long or short; it matters to write clearly.

The purpose of any art form is to promise a payoff and then deliver on that payoff.

If the artist doesn't deliver, they have failed. If they deliver so late that the public has left the building, they have failed. If they make no clear promise, they have failed even more.

> it is not a great article to retweet to your followers

I don't have any follower, and I don't "follow", anybody. I don't play that game at all. But I am used to great writing from great writers of the past, and this ain't it.

> The purpose of any art form is to promise a payoff and then deliver on that payoff.

I disagree. Change “any” for “some” and I agree. The way you said it, it just seems like a gamification of art creation. There is very good, if long, essay on that.

> The purpose of any art form is to promise a payoff and then deliver on that payoff.

There is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in your philosophy.

> . He writes lots because writing little is not his goal

Writing clearly should be a goal of every wannabe writer. Whats the point of long form writing if you dont even know what the whole point of the essay is 20% in?

He’s not a wannabe. He’s a writer. Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination, more. Not all writing needs to follow an introduction, body, conclusion format, with topic sentences. It’s ok to write densely, allusively, to reward rereading.

> He’s not a wannabe. He’s a writer

Anyone can claim to be a writer. It does not take more than having a keyboard in front of you and lots of time.

> Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination, more.

You don't have to make the reader pain through your long and fastidious journey.

> Not all writing needs to follow an introduction, body, conclusion format, with topic sentences.

Indeed, but still writing is supposed to be more than just fluff that says nothing paragraph after paragraph. That's just filler content.

Anyone can claim to be a writer, but it seems obvious that he actually _is_ a writer. See: the book he wrote.

Writing also _can_ be more than just fluff, but it doesn't need to be. It may not be your style, but long form, not-concise content has it's place. See: The New Yorker, etc.

I don't disagree with the feedback that it's rambling; for some, that destroys the value, while for others that's the point.

It's also an interesting representation of a topic he touches on; that social media has turned everything in to bite-sized nuggets of insight with no meat around them, that nobody – not even literary reviewers – have the patience to sit down and fully digest anything longer than a simple blog post length summary.

I almost feel like we didn't read the same article. I felt like the author spoke very simply. He just didn't have a clear point he was trying to express, which I believe is valid criticism.

Given that his book is plugged in the first line, I figure this article is intended simply to advertise more copies of his book. While it does have interesting nuggets of knowledge, such as the initially unimpressive teenager having the most engaging questions, it is competing with many more compelling reads.

If you know what the whole point of the essay is 20% in--given your predilection for just getting to the point--should it not just end? This was one of the best articles I have read recently, and I honestly wish it had been longer... which means it served what it probably was actually intended to do: not communicate some point but serve as an advertisement for the author's book, the point of which I'd prefer not be spoiled by the trailer ;P.

> If you know what the whole point of the essay is 20% in--given your predilection for just getting to the point--should it not just end?

It's not about finishing at 20%, it's having an actual clue what the whole thing is approximately going to be about after 1000 words. If you can't even achieve that, this is just bad, random word salad disguising as an essay.

When you're writing holistically, the point often only comes at the end. Or, sometimes it's about the journey and the friends you make along the way.

A commentator upstream declared that there is only one purpose to writing: to impart information. I disagree strongly. That may be what that commentator expects from writing, but I'm in it for many possible things.

I like writing that tickles my fancy, or entertains. I like writing that teaches me something, even if it seems tangential to the purpose of the essay or book. I like writing that doesn't even try to teach me anything. I write a lot just to get my own thoughts clear---in my own head, not someone else's.

Not everything is for everyone, all of the time.

That's OK. You can just walk away, even without registering your opinion.

I think Justin's erudite and learned style provokes those who feel he thinks he's better than the reader. I've been reading him for a long time and nothing could be further from the truth. He just likes to write about things and sees connections where others would not.

Sometimes it takes a while to explain those connections.

I'm almost done with the book he wrote about. I quite like it and have learned a lot.

Peoples don’t know to read anymore. They have their brain limited by Netflix and twitter. As a famous French thinker told us many years ago: this is just punchline totalitarism

> He is lamenting how while promoting his book he is getting interviewed by people who have only read the marketing sales points.

Incidentally, if his book resembles this essay, it's no wonder people prefer to read the marketing synopsis. He should maybe do some introspection instead of accusing the whole world of being... I'm not even sure what... childish?

People's time is precious. Don't waste it in vain.

Quite. Why waste your time reading War and Peace when you can read the LitCharts study guide [1] that helpfully explains the literary motifs, symbolism and relationship between the characters? Time is money after all.

[1]https://www.litcharts.com/lit/war-and-peace

I think Shakespear had it right when he had a verbose character say, 'brevity is the soul of wit'. Very few writers can craft a compelling narrative on the same scale as Tolstoy. There's something I observed around people who study literature full time where they spend all this time with classic epics and want to do that themselves. But Tolstoy had a lot to say and earned the reader's attention. Most people, even most professionals, are not at Tolstoy's level, and the sin isn't being less skilled than a generation-defining genius like him but in eschewing the tools of the journeyman.

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