My best engagement on Hacker News has come from submitting great discussion topics; content is secondary. You're trying to think of something that people would really enjoy talking about if they just got the chance. So if you can notice systemic issues and perhaps give them a name, you're halfway to the front page already. When they read your title, people think of all kinds of related ideas that they've been dying to discuss! Indeed, with a good enough title, you barely need an article at all...
dijit · 9m ago
Agreed, when it comes to writing for hackernews I have had the best results personally when being curious but incomplete.
If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both will cause the discussion for other people to die.
The best has been tangents that are tangentially related to the topic presented. There can be multiple of these subthreads and they always make for interesting reading.
paulpauper · 3m ago
Are you talking about writing in the context of HN comment or submitting links?
boznz · 58m ago
Click-bait titles like "All the best programmers know this..", "Breakthrough might make fusion a reality.." or any other type of title that does not give a hint of what the actual thing is are immediately discarded by me regardless of the creator. I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh!
This title problem is even worse as an author where you get one-chance for people to notice/read your book, but if the blurb or the cover picture is even slightly misleading or sub-par to the readers expectation they are likely to review it poorly and then the algorithm kicks it down the listings. I seriously miscategorised my first book and it did not do it any favors.
paulpauper · 2m ago
My belief has been that the title should describe exactly what it is you're writing about. no cleverness
eCa · 11m ago
> You should try to make a good thing, that many people would like
Personally, I would care (much) more about making a good thing over doing something many people likes.
paulpauper · 5m ago
I agree , but up to a point. If you want to get paid, get credit, recognition, improve career etc. it's necessary enough people also like it.
andy99 · 27m ago
Personal pet peeve is the "I made a" prefix to titles. It adds nothing but an apparently selfish shift to the author/creator as opposed to their work.
arccy · 17m ago
That's so selfish of you to expect other people to provide neutral sounding content without claiming some participation in doing so.
brendoelfrendo · 15m ago
I suppose it depends; if you're trying to showcase the work, then for sure, I'm more interested in what you made than the fact that you made it. Hopefully the work speaks for itself. But while "I made a foo" is not particularly enticing, "I made a foo and here's what I learned about bar in the process" can be a good thing. In that case, the shift in framing works because the focus is less on the product and more about sharing knowledge that the creator gained along the way that they hope might be entertaining or valuable to someone else.
cosmicgadget · 23m ago
> Consider title-driven thing creation. That is, consider first choosing a title and then creating a thing that delivers on the title. I
For better or worse, my process is:
1. Write something
2. Create a title that is sometimes literal or sometimes a theme if the post covers multiple topics (I know, I know)
3. Rely on a one-sentence rss/html description to provide a clear preview of the content
billyp-rva · 1h ago
> You’d think that, by 2025, technology would have solved the problem of things getting to people. I think it’s the opposite. Social media is optimized to keep people engaged and does not want people leaving the walled garden. Openly prohibiting links would cause a revolt, so instead they go as close as people will tolerate. Which, it turns out, is pretty close.
I'm not at all sure it would cause a revolt. Most people probably wouldn't notice at this point.
lylejantzi3rd · 1h ago
It did cause a small uproar, but not as big of one as I expected. Musk admitted that posts with links that people clicked on would get de-prioritized by the algorithm.
oh i thought the greatest brain in America had been removed from the government in order to focus on his failing truck business, but apparently he's "optimizing user-seconds" on his conspiracy forum instead?
paulpauper · 11m ago
I disagree about negative attention being bad. People who dislike your content but still share it out of spite to "tell the world how wrong you are", can lead to more traffic and readers from spillover effects.
amw-zero · 1h ago
Eh. I like to wing it and call it whatever I like. If the content is good, people will find it.
mac-attack · 1h ago
Good read, I'm going to subscribe to your blog via RSS now.
AlienRobot · 21m ago
If you don't care about SEO, why not just lie blatantly? Title "How I made 5 million dollars in a week working from home" then talk about your vacation to a local beach or something.
If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both will cause the discussion for other people to die.
The best has been tangents that are tangentially related to the topic presented. There can be multiple of these subthreads and they always make for interesting reading.
This title problem is even worse as an author where you get one-chance for people to notice/read your book, but if the blurb or the cover picture is even slightly misleading or sub-par to the readers expectation they are likely to review it poorly and then the algorithm kicks it down the listings. I seriously miscategorised my first book and it did not do it any favors.
Personally, I would care (much) more about making a good thing over doing something many people likes.
For better or worse, my process is:
1. Write something
2. Create a title that is sometimes literal or sometimes a theme if the post covers multiple topics (I know, I know)
3. Rely on a one-sentence rss/html description to provide a clear preview of the content
I'm not at all sure it would cause a revolt. Most people probably wouldn't notice at this point.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1915806794393457034