Yes there are a lot of bold statements written as a blog posts going around, which are mostly for the purpose of ranting and self-promotion.

It's like a bolded tweet.

You know what the difference between an author and a writer is? An author writes.

I thought the difference was "an author is published." That doesn't translate into the post-NYC-book-publishing-industry era, though, because "an author is read" doesn't convey the same idea—you can be read because of viral marketing effects, but usually you're only published because an editor thinks your content is an investment that will make their publisher money.

I just signed on to express your first sentence, but you beat me to it!

I've been lurking for a short while on here and found out about HN because I wanted to get into programming and the whole IT world. I find HN great for those things, but as soon as they start posting "creative writing" material, it's really only good for a chuckle. A lot of it competes with the self-absorbed, snobby (Liberal) Arts, so-called objective, essay writing that I had to put up with at university. They only base things on subjective meanderings.

i feel the same way. like this place is a toxic pit of narcissism that leaves me feeling icky and uninspired.