- > First write with lots of formatting. > Then figure out how to remove it. > Then put it back, if you want.
In the fifth grade, we were required to write an outline for our research project essay. Imagine my delight when writing the paper was as easy as copying the outline and adding a couple extra words.
That value of formatting into bulleted lists reminds me of the McPhee method of writing, which was shared last year on HN. He manipulates physical note cards to write, and I was manipulating digital ones.
- Here (199 points, 53 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45013535
- I like this Tufte quote from https://www.edwardtufte.com/notebook/book-design-advice-and-...:
It is also notable that the Feynman lectures (3 volumes) write about all of physics in 1800 pages, using only 2 levels of hierarchical headings: chapters and A-level heads in the text. It also uses the methodology of sentences which then cumulate sequentially into paragraphs, rather than the grunts of bullet points. Undergraduate Caltech physics is very complicated material, but it didn’t require an elaborate hierarchy to organize.
I think about it a lot when reading markdown feature-driven writing or catching myself doing it.
- Let me point out that in the first section you had radically different goals than in the second section. Try rewriting the “look how confusing this meaningless slop” is in prose and “look how clear this communication is” in outline and see what variable you’re actually illustrating.
- Related: How Users Read on the Web, a classic of web usability research.
- I haven't seen a lot of excessive formatting in human-written text. These are all much more LLM-isms to my eye.
- This is unfortunate, because (and probably much to the article writer's chagrin), I am a fan of making use of the formatting tools available for a given platform. When convenient, I love using an em/en-dash. And, when I'm up for it, italicizing and bolding words to convey prosody. It just feels right.
Now, though, I may be dismissed as an LLM (probably as an older model that can't quite use them formatting tools effectively).
- I'm speaking more of excessive headings for small sections, which are themselves just bullet point lists, all of this highly nested. That's the main thing demonstrated in the post here.
The LLM writing is basically infodump. Lists dressed up in different ways (sections, bullet points, nested bullet points, and sequences of "[bold]Blah blah[/bold]: blah blah blah" sentences.
- I wind up using this kind of formatting while writing in Google Docs. It's easier to jump around with the nav bar if the structure is legible to the app. But it does make the document less readable.
- Summary * Use prose more
- Seriously hate how young people write these days. Like the OP covers, every sentence is on a new line, emojis everywhere, and too many memes. Does that make me old?
- Zoomer here, guess I must be getting old too.
- Yea, probably. My "old-man" pet peeve is people using "lol"/"lmao"/etc. as punctuation lol.
