Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

My pet peeve. This was closely watched at Techcrunch and we mocked other blogs (and our own bloggers) who fell back on it frequently (pronouncing titles with question marks with an inflection).

Using a question mark just means you aren't sure of your position or what you are trying to say. It makes it easier to sit on the fence and not really say anything, playing it safe.

I think most readers prefer a firm opinion or statement, regardless of if they agree with it or not.




Then how does one write about interesting open questions? If the implicit assumption that there aren't any interesting open questions, then I have doubts. Such a field should be a mature industry, and not a field for startups or serious research.


I question whether articles without conclusions are necessary at all, and the situation you describe is one of poor writing. Say something, then create a headline based on that. If you aren't saying anything, then a bad headline is all that's possible.


So you're saying it's never necessary to consider open questions at all? What if the question was written as a conjecture, then the name of the conjecture was used as the title, would that be somehow better? That makes no sense.


Kind of. Sturgeon's Law takes care of the rest.


Non sequitur.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: