[antisemiotic]

>As an author, that’s my decision to make about my blog posts. My choice of pictures belong in my blog posts, much as my choice of chords belong in my musical compositions.

Of course, just like anyone's free to say "it's a generic 4:4 I–V–vi–IV pop song, nothing to write home about" or "it's yet another ISO standard blogpost, don't bother clicking through the popup". Though I think a better equivalent of a meme-laden blogpost would be a sea-shanty with changing time signatures and atonal riffs with a rabid scene kid at the vocals - kind of bizzare, kind of crass, fully useless for pulling a rope on a galleon.

>It’s a perfectly valid choice to write essays that are hyper-focused on just teaching the facts as efficiently as possible, but that isn’t some kind of universal rule that must be applied to all essays.

I wasn't arguing that every blogpost should be hyper-focused, just that it would be kind of nice if more people took the route of "uncreative but solid" rather than "trying to create an illusion of creativity with randomness".

[javajosh]

> "trying to create an illusion of creativity with randomness"

I doubt that's why authors use this technique, though. I think it's part humble-brag ("hey I'm so smart I don't take complexity seriously!") and part an expression of nervousness ("it's scary to write things and publish on the internet, because haters"). A less serious style also allows you to take criticism more easily, perhaps.

That's an explanation, not an excuse! I like dense, solid prose more.

[antisemiotic]

Hmm you're right, on a related note patching holes in my understanding of a topic with "distance" and sarcasm is something I'm personally guilty of. I'm grateful of HN for being much less conductive for that style than, say, Reddit.

[braythwayt]

I think a better equivalent of a meme-laden blogpost would be a sea-shanty with changing time signatures and atonal riffs with a rabid scene kid at the vocals - kind of bizzare, kind of crass, fully useless for pulling a rope on a galleon.

To my great delight, this phrase illustrates the value of writing with feeling and metaphor. It captures my imagination and motivates me to think about your argument carefully.

[antisemiotic]

I've never argued that metaphors make for worse technical writing. It's just that you've started the discussion defending putting random pics into a blog post, and now you're trying to paint opposition to these as an opposition to creative technical writing (vide the sibling post about Raymond Smullyan). I think we might be in a violent agreement here, actually.

[braythwayt]

+1