This is a good point. Beginning in medias res seems also one of the reasons why posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander are so readable.
But for long posts I think a short abstract in the beginning is actually helpful, perhaps highlighted in italics. Unfortunately some people use the abstract as a mere teaser (”… wanna know how I came to that startling conclusion? Guess you have to read the whole paper/post, hehe”) rather than as a proper spoiler of the main insights.
“Spoiler” sounds bad from the perspective of the author (“will people still read my post when I already revealed the punchline in the abstract?”), but a spoiler can actually provide motivation to read the whole post for “fun” reasons. E.g. by going “I already agree with that claim in the abstract, let’s indulge in confirming my preconceptions!” or “I disagree with that claim, guess I have to read the post so I can write a rebuttal in the comments!” Not very rational, but better than not being motivated to read the post at all.
Though you probably use other tricks to make a post more readable. From your post above I inferred these points:
Use examples
Include images if possible
Don’t clutter the post with a lot of distracting links and footnotes
Include rhetorical questions
short sentences
delete unnecessary tangents to make the post shorter
That’s what I thought anyway. Maybe you could share your own tips? “How to Write Readable Posts”
This is a good point. Beginning in medias res seems also one of the reasons why posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander are so readable.
But for long posts I think a short abstract in the beginning is actually helpful, perhaps highlighted in italics. Unfortunately some people use the abstract as a mere teaser (”… wanna know how I came to that startling conclusion? Guess you have to read the whole paper/post, hehe”) rather than as a proper spoiler of the main insights.
“Spoiler” sounds bad from the perspective of the author (“will people still read my post when I already revealed the punchline in the abstract?”), but a spoiler can actually provide motivation to read the whole post for “fun” reasons. E.g. by going “I already agree with that claim in the abstract, let’s indulge in confirming my preconceptions!” or “I disagree with that claim, guess I have to read the post so I can write a rebuttal in the comments!” Not very rational, but better than not being motivated to read the post at all.
Though you probably use other tricks to make a post more readable. From your post above I inferred these points:
Use examples
Include images if possible
Don’t clutter the post with a lot of distracting links and footnotes
Include rhetorical questions
short sentences
delete unnecessary tangents to make the post shorter
That’s what I thought anyway. Maybe you could share your own tips? “How to Write Readable Posts”