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Comment by PhantomGremlin | Hacker News Reader

I agree. I just skimmed it, but it appears to meander. A lot. And it's very long. It probably could have benefited from some "tough love" editing.

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That's his whole thing. His films typically come in three or four 60 minute sections. He occasionally does stuff like stage live action interactive theatre versions of his documentaries in abandoned warehouses. He once did a show with Massive Attack. So when he writes articles like this, it's him being restrained.

See the following brilliantly observed parody for the reasons to take him with a pinch of salt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1bX3F7uTrg

That said, he is one of my intellectual idols, however much he does enjoy gimmickry.

It's very long? Do you have the patience of a gnat? This is exactly the kind of journalism that should be championed instead of short, fact-less articles about the latest celebrity to accidentally release a sex tape.

Don't most programmers have ADD? Many engineers in general do, and I'm one of them.

E.g. why are you on HN? Is it because you're bored while something is compiling? But you know that you'll spend more time on HN (or slashdot or whatever) than it takes for the compile to finish.

And why is twitter so popular? Isn't 140 characters the antithesis of patience?

I can certainly take the time to read long articles, but I didn't know this author. So that makes him one of literally "thousands" of articles, tweets, etc competing for my time every day. That's why I generally flit thru articles.

That's part of the charm. It draws in the casual reader - perhaps one seeking some cheap sensationalism - and then quite unexpectedly becomes an expansive, relevant commentary on our time. It might be brilliant.

Would you prefer a LOLcat?

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