
How to write about code and give zero fucks (2013) - braythwayt
http://garann.com/dev/2013/how-to-blog-about-code-and-give-zero-fucks/
======
striking
> Fuck quality control.

Summed up the article for you.

Not saying it's a bad article, but it's kind of lost in itself. I agree that,
syntactically, blog posts about code don't have to be as correct wrt. syntax
as the code itself. But something that is very necessary (that this blog post
ironically does a good job of showing) is making sure the flow of your words
is unobstructed.

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words,
a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing
should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

I agree with the author. Type whatever you feel explains what you're trying to
say! But maybe don't "fuck quality control". Maybe, if just to make the
reader's life a little easier, remove some of the things that aren't 100%
necessary after your first round of writing.

~~~
braythwayt
Well... She does also say sleep on the article and rewrite/fix the next day.
Maybe there’s an idea that you shouldn’t write with a censor sitting on your
shoulder interrupting your train-of-thought.

I have found it valuable to separate “generating” from “filtering,” and I
understand this is a standard piece of advice from people peddling
“creativity” seminars.

~~~
striking
Yeah, that standard piece of advice is essentially what I was going for. She
doesn't say to sleep on it and fix it the next day, though.

> Save it as a draft and come back and reread it in the morning. [...] If you
> can amuse yourself when you just woke up and you heard all the jokes about
> the text selection API last night, you have done a good job. And if you
> can't, _fuck it, leave it in the drafts and don 't worry about rewriting
> it._ [emphasis mine]

The author doesn't mention any sort of copy-editing process and instead leaves
a misleading dichotomy between "rewriting" and "leaving it in the drafts".

Blog posts should be written with an awareness to the audience, but not
necessarily catering to them. Just enough awareness to say "y'know, someone
else is going to read this, so maybe I should cut out a few paragraphs and get
to my point a teensy bit quicker." Otherwise, comments are about the style of
writing rather than the content, or about adjacent points that don't concern
the main topic. And not being able to interact meaningfully with your audience
is lame.

~~~
braythwayt
Hah, I think my approach sides more with her than with you. I blog mostly to
work things out in my own brain, and rewrite only when it helps me clarify the
ideas for myself.

I explicitly refuse to have comments on my blog, so I certainly am not a
poster-child for interacting meaningfully--or at all-with my audience.

But I do agree that rewriting does serve your audience.

[http://braythwayt.com/2015/01/16/write-for-yourself-
rewrite-...](http://braythwayt.com/2015/01/16/write-for-yourself-rewrite-for-
others.html)

~~~
striking
Besides catharsis, I think interacting with people is a great blogging
motivator. I appreciate your inclusion of the two Louis C.K. videos (I've seen
them before, love 'em :)

Your blog post was far more effective at showing the differences between
writing and editing, which is definitely far more nuanced than "fuck quality
control." I agreed with her to a degree, and I definitely agree with you.

Looking at the reddit thread of your article, though, you're incorrect about
not interacting with your audience. You absolutely did that. And suddenly,
once you linked your article, _I_ have become part of your audience. And
you're interacting with me. (Good work.)

I don't advocate editing just to serve some imagined audience, either. You are
your own audience, like it or not. And if your text is unclean, your thoughts
incomprehensible, then what use is your blog post, even to yourself?

Well-written blogs are far more useful than stream of consciousness ones. I
took far more out of your blog post than from the OP. I agree that "giving
zero fucks is totally fine", as OP mentions, but polished posts are many times
more useful.

