Hacker News Reader

Comment by cshenoy | Hacker News Reader

Why does the copy drive you away from it? Serious question since I didn't think one way or the other about it.

I don't feel it as strongly as minimaxir apparently does, but the copy bugged me in the way a lot of products focused on the Apple core audience do. It's impressed with itself and encourages you to be impressed with yourself as well.

Personally, I prefer a more matter-of-fact approach. The less bullshit I get in a marketing pitch, the less I worry that they need to bullshit me to cover up for issues I haven't yet discovered. But then, I'm not in Svbtle's target market; I'm very unlikely to use a hosted platform to publish.

...the copy bugged me in the way a lot of products focused on the Apple core audience do. It's impressed with itself...

Definitely! Having just got back from watching the X Games, the comparison that springs to mind is that this sort of thing bugs me the way any opinion column published in any Aspen CO newspaper bugs me. "When I think about how perceptive and fortunate I am to have chosen to live in such a wonderful community..."

"When I think about how perceptive and fortunate I am to have chosen to live in such a wonderful community..."

I grew up in a ski town. I bet the locals fucking love him.

Maybe it's a Colorado thing? It reminds me of the same coffee shop conversation I used to overhear: 'I just love living in Boulder, it's so diverse.' Said by white person to other white person on a day I went only saw white people on the way to the office with all white people before I went home to a largely white community.

I'm sure they were great people and I loved my neighborhood in the suburbs but it and Boulder were anything but diverse from an ethic or cultural point of view.

the way a lot of products focused on the Apple core audience do. It's impressed with itself and encourages you to be impressed with yourself as well.

Huh. I've never thought of it in those words, its a great explanation for the tone of writing has been driving me batty. The first self-congratulatory superfluous adjective I see puts me directly into "I'm being lied to" mode.

Because my brain doesn't necessarily work how your brain works. Saying they've figured out how the brain works is like saying they've figured out how fashion works or design works. Everyone does things differently, so their preferred method may not be the best for me.

Well, he did study neuroscience for a while, I think he's informed enough to give educated guesses to how the mind operates enough to design a platform that operates much in the same way.

I like Medium's better because it's a story. It's got some emotion behind it.

I think a lot of recent radical changes were made to medium.com in recent times to adopt this sense of "emotional design".

I'm curious too. It wasn't really compelling copy (for me), but I don't see why Medium's would be better in this case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com