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Comment by wordofx | Hacker News Reader

> Wiens sips a Diet Coke and settles in as I start explaining the framework of our conversation. He interrupts me politely to get a big caveat out of the way related to confidentiality terms iFixit still has with Samsung.

I really struggle to read these types of interviews. If I wanted to read the novel I would buy the book… but if I’m reading an article I don’t want the fluff…

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Generally I agree, but this is one single paragraph of colour followed by the rest being straight reporting below, and adds important context.

Same for me. I'm sure that commercial writers these days face all kinds of pressure regarding their writing styles.

But usually I just want pyramid-style writing for the news.

It's invading everything, too. Ninja warrior used to be a show about amazing athletes conquering the courses, with a quirky backstory thrown in sometimes.

Now, almost everyone has a lengthy backstory that is told at least once per season, and it's a significant amount of the runtime of the show.

It's gotten to the point that even athletes that have basically no backstory still end up with a lengthy segment on themselves. For fairness, I guess?

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s because viewers tested more positively to the backstories and the connection helps them choose someone to root for and therefore be more invested in the show. The showrunners didn’t do it for shits and giggles, they did it because it makes them more money. If you want just the sport bits, you can always watch Sasuke, the original, which I believe has less backstory interstitials.

Or it could be cheaper to make.

i.e. It's cheaper per unit-airtime to have a small crew interviewing people for backstory (+ editing) than recording people doing the course. They can pad-out the expensive bit (holding the events) with filler/b-roll.

I imagine it's the same thing that caused the comment here about not liking it. I don't care if it "tested well", I don't like it.

And yes, I watch Sasuke when I get a chance. Also, Australian Ninja Warrior. The British one isn't as good, IMO, but we watch that, too.

Which is why World Ninja League (an actual sport) is better than American Ninja Warrior (a TV show with a sporting element). See also World Chase Tag vs Ultimate Tag, which has basically the same distinction.

I had never heard of it. Thanks!

For news content I agree, but for deep-dives on people and their character I quite like the background and scene setting that authors do.

Folks agreeing with this take should take a hard look at their attention spans and ability to focus and comprehend - it’s honestly really shocking to see how many people can’t handle sitting still and reading for 10 minutes (or fewer!) straight!

I should say I’ve struggled with this too, I have to be super mindful otherwise I’ll flip and skim and find myself distracted. But it is interesting there’s an embracing of this by many - “I always ask ChatGPT to summarize xyz.”

> Folks agreeing with this take should take a hard look at their attention spans and ability to focus and comprehend

It's not a complaint about the text being long. It's a complaint about the text being content-free.

Same, really annoys me. Guess writer has a word-count target to meet and adding such fluff is an easy way to get there.

Guess one could train an LLM to de-fluff articles?

I usually ask for ChatGPT for a 1000 word summary. Works quite well for getting rid of unnecessary details.

https://ea.rna.nl/2024/05/27/when-chatgpt-summarises-it-actu...

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