Anti-patterns in software blogging
- ID
- 33164
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 07 Oct 2026, 9:08 PM
- Fetched
- 08 Oct 2026, 8:01 PM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://refactoringenglish.com/blog/anti-patterns-software-blogging/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 08 Oct 2026, 8:02 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_foundersvibe_coders
What happened
Michael Lynch published a catalogue of 'anti-patterns in software blogging' on October 7, 2026, listing the mistakes he sees most from beginner bloggers: the meandering intro, preamble that crowds the reader's path, the assumption that 'the reader knows everything I know except this one thing,' overreliance on links, the sequel injection bug, excessive formality, fumbling HTML rendering basics, page overflow on mobile, and unreadable fonts. His core prescription is that the title plus the first three sentences must answer two reader questions: is this written for someone like me, and how will I benefit? He illustrates with his own post, 'if got, want: A Simple Way to Write Better Go Tests,' which states the relevance and the payoff in its opening lines. The Hacker News thread drew 287 points and 140 comments.
Why it matters
If you write launch posts, changelogs, or dev blogs, the actionable part is narrow and testable: rewrite your title and first three sentences until they answer 'is this for someone like me' and 'what do I get,' because the article's claim is that readers decide in that window and everything else in the path (subtitle, bio, image, quote) spends the same finite attention budget. The rendering items on the list — mobile page overflow and unreadable font — are checks you can run on your own site today rather than writing advice you have to interpret. There is no Malaysia or Southeast Asia angle in this piece; it is craft advice with no local funding, policy, or infrastructure component.
Discussion angle
Pull up one recent post from someone in the group and score its title and first three sentences against Lynch's two reader questions — then rewrite the opening live and see whether the payoff is actually stated or just implied.