Summary

Flow2’s 10-year retrospective on blogging for an audience of ~10 pageviews/week (mostly bots). Covers concrete style improvements (eliminating hedging phrases, cutting redundant adjectives), writing process (iterative drafts, ideas-on-demand capture), and the intrinsic value of writing for skill-building rather than audience metrics.

Flow2 關於每週約 10 次頁面瀏覽量(大多是機器人)的博客 10 年回顧。涵蓋具體的風格改進(消除模糊語言、刪除冗餘形容詞)、寫作過程(迭代草稿、按需捕捉想法),以及為技能提升而非受眾指標而寫作的內在價值。

Key Points

  • Main style flaw: overusing hedge phrases (“I think…”, “I feel…”, “In my opinion…“) — makes writing safe but boring; if you’re writing an opinion piece, the opinion is already yours
  • Redundant adjectives: “interesting and thought-provoking”, “broad, wide-ranging” — use one precise adjective instead
  • “Careful language” softens ideas until they’re inarguable — this makes writing weak, not modest
  • Writing process: highly iterative, many drafts; capture ideas immediately (author wrote paragraph genesis at 5am on phone); time between drafts provides fresh perspective
  • Tool: Obsidian with cross-device sync → can write from anywhere, especially phone
  • Core motivation: becoming a better writer through practice, not audience growth

Insights

The hedge-phrase observation is precise and actionable. “I think” at the start of a sentence in an opinion piece is redundant — it’s all your thinking. More importantly, hedge phrases don’t just pad the sentence; they signal that the author doesn’t stand behind their claim, which makes the writing forgettable. The “fewer, more precise words” principle connects to Paul Graham’s useful writing criteria and to the general editing principle that everything should earn its place. The 10-year framing is useful: consistent practice over years, not audience response, is what produces writing skill.

Connections

Raw Excerpt

Using careful language just softens your ideas to the point of being inarguable. If you’re publishing something on the internet, you might as well stand tall behind your words and wait for someone to call bullshit.