Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Good writing

http://nsmb.com/ride-two-wheels-call-morning/

The article linked above represents some of the best (maybe the best) writing I've ever seen in the mountain bike industry. The article ticks off a lot of common mountain bike experiences without feeling cliche, it toggles between serious and tongue-in-cheek without compromising its voice, and it reads naturally, like a normal person sharing conversation with you. Writing like this is refreshing, especially in an industry where most writing from "deep thinkers" sounds more like a junior-year philosophy major wearing out the servers over at thesaurus.com on the way to "crafting his masterpiece." The author knew his topic, didn't stray too far from it, and demonstrated general principles by referring to specific personal experiences. In short, it was excellent. 


Just goes to show, all the best writers struggle with depression. 

6 comments:

hatin' on illiteracy said...

good writing for a 15 year old, maybe

good writing for someone who never writes anything more than a 140-character tweet, maybe

good writing for someone who only learned English a year ago, maybe

don't know how you missed the pocketful of cliches larded into that pissy little moan about pseudo-depression (i.e. I can't afford ENVE wheels, so I'm depressed) and how it's fixed by riding a bike and saying you're "stoked"

I'm sure my 8th or 9th grade English teachwer would have given a B to that linked essay, but I don't know any decent writers who would say it was anything but mediocre pap

Anonymous said...

Agreed. Stick to riding bikes and telling others how to do so with supreme arrogance. That's your forte. If you just happen to be a "crying on the inside" type of clown, we can bro-hug on the trails. Meanwhile Matthew Lee needs to sack up and get a J.O.B.

Inquiring Minds said...

Many meritorious observations already made above, but, for starters, how does a robot wrap its arms around the concept of depression in the first place?

Anonymous said...

... because even robots need to explore their sensitive side sometimes.

KenBot3000 said...

It's easy for a robot to be depressed. If robots wnat to kill all humans, they've already missed the estimated 100 billion dead since the human race has existed.

STFU said...

I thought it was well written, even if the other commenters thought it was too long and only skim read it.