I’m also using AI art for the banner of the sequence. That’s more intended to be for aesthetic reasons, and it more closely follows your guidelines, though it still is just something I quickly threw together.
I’d certainly like to have more aesthetic art for all of this. And better writting, and better explanations, and better everything. But each improvement takes time and effort and I’d rather concentrate on getting more posts for the sequence out there than on making it nicer.
I don’t have particularly objections against any of the things there. In particular, they are not doing the thing where the top of the post is an image that is a little garish and clip-arty while not really having to do withe the post.
The image in the sequence page has a reasonable aesthetic. The main thing that feels off is that the rest of your sequence doesn’t followup on that aesthetic – you could imagine a world where the photoreal images you later used were instead matching the painterly-blocky-children’s-book-vibe of the sequence header. But, this is kinda a nice-to-have.
The image in the first post seems totally fine (apart from the not-matching-header-image). Instead of being randomly added to the beginning, it fits into the post later on fairly seamlessly, in a way you explicitly make use of.
The second one is also fine except it takes up a lot of vertical space at the top of the post when I’m still trying to figure out what the post is about and makes it a bit harder to briefly scan the intro. That’s where the “do a widescreen aspect ratio” comes in.
I’d certainly like to have more aesthetic art for all of this. And better writting, and better explanations, and better everything. But each improvement takes time and effort and I’d rather concentrate on getting more posts for the sequence out there than on making it nicer.
Yeah also to be clear I’m not saying everyone should invest a ton in art skills, just that if you’re going to bother putting art at the top of your post… I dunno, invest at least a little (and at the very least figure out how to widescreen ones, which ameliorate some of the downsides). Most posts don’t need art and I think it’s better to either invest until it’s passable or not add it.
Your posts/images all seem above Raemon’s Aesthetic Bar.
I’m using some AI art in my linear diffusion of sparse lognormals sequence, in particular for performance optimization as a metaphor for life and comparison and magnitude/diminishment. I’d be curious what you think about those two pictures; I’d personally say I didn’t really follow the rules about making it aesthetic or flow well, but instead just wanted something more concrete to point to.
I’m also using AI art for the banner of the sequence. That’s more intended to be for aesthetic reasons, and it more closely follows your guidelines, though it still is just something I quickly threw together.
I’d certainly like to have more aesthetic art for all of this. And better writting, and better explanations, and better everything. But each improvement takes time and effort and I’d rather concentrate on getting more posts for the sequence out there than on making it nicer.
I don’t have particularly objections against any of the things there. In particular, they are not doing the thing where the top of the post is an image that is a little garish and clip-arty while not really having to do withe the post.
The image in the sequence page has a reasonable aesthetic. The main thing that feels off is that the rest of your sequence doesn’t followup on that aesthetic – you could imagine a world where the photoreal images you later used were instead matching the painterly-blocky-children’s-book-vibe of the sequence header. But, this is kinda a nice-to-have.
The image in the first post seems totally fine (apart from the not-matching-header-image). Instead of being randomly added to the beginning, it fits into the post later on fairly seamlessly, in a way you explicitly make use of.
The second one is also fine except it takes up a lot of vertical space at the top of the post when I’m still trying to figure out what the post is about and makes it a bit harder to briefly scan the intro. That’s where the “do a widescreen aspect ratio” comes in.
Yeah also to be clear I’m not saying everyone should invest a ton in art skills, just that if you’re going to bother putting art at the top of your post… I dunno, invest at least a little (and at the very least figure out how to widescreen ones, which ameliorate some of the downsides). Most posts don’t need art and I think it’s better to either invest until it’s passable or not add it.
Your posts/images all seem above Raemon’s Aesthetic Bar.