Author here. I totally hear the criticism. I had "Capabilities for nodejs packages" or something like it as a draft title for the post. But its a boring title. And I believe this article would have had far less reach with a name like that.
I hear you. I don't believe the answer is to just sensationalize everything to 110%. But I personally absolutely can't stand boring writing. Like, holding my attention on anything which isn't at least a bit human and engaging feels like torture. My job is 70% researcher, and one of the worst parts of my job is reading academic papers - I just can't hold my attention on a boring paper for more than a few sentences. My old supervisor used to tease me about using 2 weeks in the lab to save 5 minutes in the library. I think he's more right than he knows.
So, I really don't have a good answer. What feels like sensationalist clickbait for you might seem like a catchy title to me, with a promise of engaging writing for someone else. And what sounds like an accurate title for someone else might turn me off completely because of its blandness.
I suspect there's no middleground here where everyone is happy, and at the end of the day when I write its up to me and my judgement. And you, the audience to complain more loudly if you feel like like I'm taking it too far. I need that, because only have my own judgement for calibration. But thats pretty unsatisfying!
I hear you. I don't believe the answer is to just sensationalize everything to 110%. But I personally absolutely can't stand boring writing. Like, holding my attention on anything which isn't at least a bit human and engaging feels like torture. My job is 70% researcher, and one of the worst parts of my job is reading academic papers - I just can't hold my attention on a boring paper for more than a few sentences. My old supervisor used to tease me about using 2 weeks in the lab to save 5 minutes in the library. I think he's more right than he knows.
So, I really don't have a good answer. What feels like sensationalist clickbait for you might seem like a catchy title to me, with a promise of engaging writing for someone else. And what sounds like an accurate title for someone else might turn me off completely because of its blandness.
I suspect there's no middleground here where everyone is happy, and at the end of the day when I write its up to me and my judgement. And you, the audience to complain more loudly if you feel like like I'm taking it too far. I need that, because only have my own judgement for calibration. But thats pretty unsatisfying!
Veritasium had a great video talking about this for his youtube thumbnails. I found it quite thought provoking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng