Aside: what is with the trend of omitting capitalization from blog posts? I get it when people are writing tweets/texts/whatever short-form media, but for a full blog post? I find it makes it harder to read. Am I alone in this?
Discussions about spelling, grammar, and punctuation on other sites transgress the HN goal to normalize thoughtful, curiosity-driven discussion here.
If you are going to studiously ignore convention, please do it consistently weirdly.
The list of issues is not a list.
Oh well. In the end the message is the thing and not the medium. Ideally the medium might be a bit more conventional to enable readers to follow the argument and not have to mentally adjust the text.
Ah, but to quote the philosopher Marshal McLuhan, the medium is the message. What does a tweet say? “This is a bite-sized idea that’s easy to understand.” What does a poorly-punctuated blog post say? “These ideas are sloppy.” What does a book say? “This is a more serious argument than you find online.” (alternatively, “I am looking for profit.”) What does a HN comment say? “This is my hot-take trying to sound smart.”
I personally agree that it makes it much harder to read.
Are you implying, with that statement, that few words might trick a reader into a different interpretation from the one they might reach otherwise or that few words are enough (do the trick)?
I'm all in favour of parsimony but please deploy the bare useful minimum with an eye to clarity and not obfuscation. Also note that a full stop (period) is an indicator that you have finished dribbling.
Unless you are writing for yourself, then you are communicating with others. If you want others to be able to understand what you are saying, then you would benefit from doing what every presenter is taught to do for any event or slide deck - cater to your audience. In the case of long form written media, that means using punctuation and capitals.
Very brave.