语言与文风2021blog.royalsloth.eu
真希望我也能写得这么好
I wish I could write this well
导读
这篇短文作者羡慕别人写得那样清晰有力，借机反思“好文笔”究竟从何而来。评论区由此展开讨论：天赋与练习的关系，以及非母语写作者面对英语表达时的额外困难。对写作者值得一读，因为它把“我写得不够好”这种自我怀疑拆解成了可以应对的东西。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
别用自我感觉判断文章好坏：作者总觉得表达不到心里那个版本，但读者往往已经觉得“没人能说得更好了”。
- 02
把每一篇旧文看成当时想法的快照，回头看觉得幼稚是进步的证明，而不是退步的证据。
- 03
所谓天赋常常只是对某件事的长期痴迷——把注意力放在投入小时数和持续琢磨上，比等待天赋更可靠。
- 04
如果母语不是英语，可以先用过硬的技术成果或专业能力建立可信度，让写作成为副产品，而不是反过来。
HN 评论精选
非母语者的写作劣势真实存在，可先用技术实力立足，让写作成为副产品。
也许这不是文章的重点，但英语作为外语的体验会因母语不同而差异很大。写清楚很难但做得到，写有趣的故事则极其困难且令人畏惧，尤其当母语与英语在本质上相距很远时。我的母语是日语，据我所知几乎没有在英语世界被 modestly 认可的日本技术博主，在 HN 上也很少见到日本人写的技术文章。另一方面，有若干基于日本的 OSS 项目或开发者却很受欢迎。我同意写作能力很有价值，但有时把时间投在纯技术能力上更有效，后者受自然语言能力的影响更小。少数写出优秀文章的日本作者都是顶尖程序员，他们的文章只是其主要贡献（优秀的代码）的副产品。
flakiness查看英文原文
Maybe this is not the main point of the article, but English as a foreign language can be felt differently based on your main language. Writing clearly is hard but possible, but writing interesting stories is desperately hard and intimidating, if your main language is far from English in its nature. My main language is Japanese. As far as I know, there is no English-writing Japanese tech blogger who is even modestly recognized. I have never seen a tech article written by Japanese here in HN - with a few exceptions. (I think I can probably spot it if I see it - The tech community is much smaller there.) On the other hand, there are several OSS projects or developers which/who are based on Japan but still somehow popular. I agree that the writing ability is very nice to have, but sometimes, it can be more effective to invest the time to purely technical skills. They are often less biased by the natural language skills. The Japan-based authors of a few exceptional posts are exceptional programmers: Their articles are mere by-products of their primary contributions, which are the great code they've written.
作者永远觉得自己写得不够好，是因为思想在更新，而读者的感受才是标尺。
在英语国家生活了16年，我仍然觉得自己表达不利落。但这并不是重点，我想说的东西总会被我没打算写的词句搅乱。我开博客是因为相信学写作的唯一方法就是写。八年过去，我仍然难以把想法准确、有效、快速地传达出来。可我读到的每个博客作者似乎都掌握了沟通。然而有时我写的东西会火，我收到邮件或称赞，说“没人能说得比这更好了”。如果我们都觉得自己表达不利落，那是因为我们是作者本人。想法会变化、演进、改进，你写下的每样东西都成为你思想的旧版本。无论当时写得多好，现在的你都学到了新东西要补充。我希望自己能写得好，但即便写好了，回看过去写的东西，我仍会说“我希望自己能写得好”。
ibudiallo查看英文原文
Here is what I want to say: After 16 years in a English speaking country, I don't feel articulate. But that's hardly the point. What I want to say always gets muddled with words I didn't intend to write. I started a blog because I believed the only way to learn to write well was by writing. After 8 years, I still struggle communicating my ideas properly, effectively and quickly enough. Yet, every blog I read the authors seems to have mastered communication. But then sometimes, something I write becomes popular. I received emails or praise about my writing style. Some will say that "no one could have said it better". If you and I don't feel as articulate, it's because we are the authors. Our ideas change, evolve, and improve. Everything you put down becomes an older version of your thoughts. No matter how good it was, the present you have learned something new to add. I wish I could write well, but even if I did, I'd look back at what I wrote in the past and still say "I wish I could write well".
天赋往往就是对某件事的痴迷，关键是把它转化为有价值的东西。
我同意关于天赋的说法。这篇文章让我想起费曼说科学家只是“真正喜欢思考和探究事物的人”。归根结底，我倾向于认为一个人的天赋其实就是对某件事的痴迷。如果你能把这种痴迷变成有市场价值的东西，你就会成功。
euske查看英文原文
I agree with the talents bit. This article somehow reminded me of Richard Feynman saying that scientists are "just people" who really likes thinking and looking into stuff. Ultimately, I tend to think that one's talent is really an obsession with something. If you can turn your obsession to be something marketable, you'd be successful.
练习重要，但先天认知能力确实影响学习速度；不过大多数人不必与顶尖高手同台竞争。
这让我思考：明知某人并非天生具备这项技能，我们为什么还说他“有天赋”？没有人天生会说话、写故事或写程序，这些都是长期投入大量时间学来的。但他们确实天生就有——IQ 是先天性的，并与相对于同龄人的写作和数学能力相关。有天赋的人同样的努力能换来更多回报，高 IQ 的人掌握概念更快。当然，在与世界顶尖高手竞争时先天能力确实重要，但对大多数人来说，与顶尖高手竞争并不是日常工作的一部分。除非你的工作是低技能岗位，否则想找到一份好而高薪的工作，就意味着要和同样有天赋的申请者竞争。
paulpauper查看英文原文
Which got me thinking, why do we refer to someone as talented when we know that they weren’t born with this skill? You weren’t born with the ability to speak, write stories or make computer programs. It’s a skill that you have have learned over time, mostly due to spending a lot of hours in that particular field. Except they are born with it. IQ is innate and correlated with relative (to one's peers) writing and math ability. People with talent get more millage for their effort. Someone with a high IQ will grasp concepts faster. http://greyenlightenment.com/2021/04/25/why-talent-beats-grit-growth-mindset-versus-the-fixed-mindset/ Sure, natural capabilities matter when you are competing with the best in the world, but for most people competing with the best is not a part of their daily job. Unless your job is low-skilled, getting a good, high-paying job means having to compete with other presumably talented applicants for that job.
同类还值得读
像说话一样写作
Write like you talk
这篇短文主张写作应像说话一样自然、清晰，避免装腔作势的书面腔。
语言与文风2015 · 647 分 · 272 评4 条写作要点编辑精选法律语言难懂源于写作不佳，而非专业概念
Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty with legal language
这是一项认知科学研究：法律文本难懂，主要不是因为充斥专业术语，而是因为写作者把句子写得又长又绕、修饰语层层嵌套、回指距离过远。
语言与文风2022 · 559 分 · 322 评5 条写作要点编辑精选写得简单
Write Simply
保罗·格拉汉姆在这篇短文里主张：好文章应该写得简单——用日常词汇、短句、直白的结构，不为显得聪明而堆砌复杂表达。
语言与文风2021 · 484 分 · 330 评4 条写作要点编辑精选Tortured phrases：科学写作中出现的一种可疑文风
Tortured phrases: A dubious writing style emerging in science
《自然》新闻报道了一种在科学论文中蔓延的怪现象：原本标准的术语被同义替换软件改写成了古怪说法，比如把 "cloud computing" 写成 "haze figuring"。
语言与文风2021 · 329 分 · 256 评4 条写作要点编辑精选乔治·奥威尔 1940 年对《我的奋斗》的书评
George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)
这是奥威尔1940年对《我的奋斗》的书评。
语言与文风2014 · 305 分 · 240 评4 条写作要点编辑精选