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Comment by narinxas | Hacker News Reader

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

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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.

Yes, getting better at communicating clearly and effectively is worth the time for social reasons. Aesthetic reasons can be important too.

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.

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...)

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.

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.

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)

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.

> 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.

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

This is a coldly economic take. Does the sole motivation of writing have to be for the consumption of others?

Scarcity depends on the amount of openly published writing. You can publish only parts of your work or publish it to limited audience.

Are you trying to convince people to spend less time writing? Ive never disagreed with a comment more than this one

I'm asking a question without an answer

the more people that exercise, the less exercise is valuable

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