Ask HN: Why Is Writing Less Valued Than Audio, Video or Drawing? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why Is Writing Less Valued Than Audio, Video or Drawing?

9 pointsCM307 comments

This is something I've always been confused by. Artists seem to get a lot of attention for their work, with comissions making quite a bit of money on the high end and fine art being worth millions. Popular creators on YouTube, Tiktok, Twitch and other sites can get a lot of views and money from their work, as can those who work on films and TV shows offline. Singers, musicians, radio and podcast hosts can make a good living from their work, at least on the higher end.

Yet writers never seem to give this sort of treatment. Popular novelists tend to be less wealthy/successful than their musical or audio creating counterparts, bloggers find it harder to get attention online than YouTubers or podcasters, and generally it's easier to promote other forms of content online in general, with many places being far happier to let people post their videos or artwork than articles or short stories.

So why is this? Why is writing in general seemingly so undervalued now, especially online?

People are more impressed by things they cannot do than by things they can. The vast majority of people in the industrialized world are functional writers; the portion who are competent performers is much lower.

While professional writers may be quite skilled, the gap between what they do and what the median adult does seems traversal. The psychic distance is much larger for other creative endeavors.

Yes...though my experience is that "functional writers" is an extremely charitable description of how good many Americans are (not) at writing.

Reading long-form fiction or nonfiction takes a lot more concentration and attention. The dopamine hit is much more quick. It's the same reason fast food and sugar is so popular.

I don't think it is at all related to what others said about "most people can write" (those people have probably not tried actually writing fiction) -- especially not with today's music production tools and how easy they are (FLStudio, Garage Band, etc.).

You also have to keep in mind the power laws are just slightly different here. There are some very very rich writers, that are far richer than even the best-selling musicians of all time. Stephen King and J. K. Rowling, for examples.

It's just a market. More people are interested in consuming and paying for an album, because it takes 45 minutes to listen to, whereas a single book might take 10+ hours to read.

Compared to looking at visual art or listening to music, reading takes real & sustained effort. Or at least attention. Lots of people really aren't up for that.

Reading takes a lot more focus to enjoy and is therefore less accessible

A word is worth .001 pictures.

Probably just TL;DR.

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