Interesting post from Dan Luu about writing styles of internet gurus. I found his takes to be interesting: they overlap but are not identical to my attitudes on the topic: I think there’s a connection between the super-aggressive writing style, always getting in your face, telling you how everything you thought was true was wrong, and the style of “business books”—you know, the ones you see at airport bookstalls—that are supposed to grab you by the lapel and never let go. I’m not saying that Luu has a super-aggressive style; actually, I think he has a charming nerd style, very open and clearly delineating between the areas where he has expertise and the areas where he’s speculating. I have to admit I got a little creeped out somewhere in the middle of Luu’s article, where he starts talking about how to hold your hands when you’re shooting a gun. But, hey, he might be a vegetarian and creeped out by my incessant references to Jamaican beef patties, so fair is fair.
Dan was quoting other people on using a gun as an example of how following instructions doesn’t work as well as figuring out how to do something in practice. Prior to that he linked to someone using riding a bike & swimming as examples of things we learn how to do through muscle memory more than we consciously understand, although he didn’t quote that YCombinator post, with his reasoning for quoting being “I’m citing those examples because they’re written up in a book”.