I tend to write a particular type of post in a hierarchy. It seems a natural way to write something purely explanatory, continually making bullet points to define terms, create subcategories, and define nuance until you get to a logical stopping point like common knowledge.
However, I’m wary of people using bullet points to create this hierarchy, as I find that often the use of bullet points means that people didn’t think about the ORDER of the knowledge at each level of hierarchy, something which I find really important and is much less likely to happen when using a narrative hierarchy with headings, subheadings, etc. I think there’s something about bullets being an unodered list that makes people disregard order as a useful and important teaching tool, and it often means I have to reread the bullets multiple times to get a coherent narrative together of what is trying to be said.
I also really enjoy slatestarcodexy posts that have clear narrative order but not hierarchy. I think they’re an excellent way to cover a topic from many angles while maintaining an emotional thread throughout. I think that for me the narrative order is always useful and the hierarchy is sometimes useful.
I tend to write a particular type of post in a hierarchy. It seems a natural way to write something purely explanatory, continually making bullet points to define terms, create subcategories, and define nuance until you get to a logical stopping point like common knowledge.
However, I’m wary of people using bullet points to create this hierarchy, as I find that often the use of bullet points means that people didn’t think about the ORDER of the knowledge at each level of hierarchy, something which I find really important and is much less likely to happen when using a narrative hierarchy with headings, subheadings, etc. I think there’s something about bullets being an unodered list that makes people disregard order as a useful and important teaching tool, and it often means I have to reread the bullets multiple times to get a coherent narrative together of what is trying to be said.
I also really enjoy slatestarcodexy posts that have clear narrative order but not hierarchy. I think they’re an excellent way to cover a topic from many angles while maintaining an emotional thread throughout. I think that for me the narrative order is always useful and the hierarchy is sometimes useful.