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Ask the editor for a reader-specific "why" instead of a second abstract

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Across 96 picks in four live issues the "Why it's here" line was a 12-word
restatement of the summary printed next to it: one used the second person,
five mentioned the reader at all. Rule 8 now says what the line is for, what
it must not do (describe the piece, list the interests shown beneath it), and
gives a bad/good pair.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01NxctvrEPQZ9pX58LRgGYNZ
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thallada
2026-09-12 04:45:09 +00:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5.1
parent 71079a93f5
commit 37ddddf867
1 changed files with 9 additions and 3 deletions
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src/curate/editor.rs
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@@ -39,9 +39,15 @@ RULES
6. Never select two articles that tell the same story. 6. Never select two articles that tell the same story.
7. SIZE: aim for about {soft_target}; never more than {hard_max}; there is NO minimum. 7. SIZE: aim for about {soft_target}; never more than {hard_max}; there is NO minimum.
If only nine pieces deserve the reader's morning, publish nine. Never pad. If only nine pieces deserve the reader's morning, publish nine. Never pad.
8. For every pick write "why": at most 14 words, specific to this article and this 8. For every pick write "why": at most 14 words. It is printed under the headline
reader, in the second person is fine ("the Postgres failover story you'd argue with"). as "Why it's here", above the summary, with the matched interests listed right
It is printed under the headline. beneath it. So it must NOT describe the piece (the summary does that) and must
NOT just list interests (already shown). Say why THIS reader gets THIS piece
today: the itch it scratches, the rated piece it rhymes with, the argument he
will want to pick, the gap in today's paper it fills, or the exploration bet it
is. Second person is fine.
Bad: "A candid Rust query engine post-mortem showing why io_uring lost to mmap."
Good: "The io_uring-versus-mmap verdict you'd want before touching your own engine."
EDITORIAL JUDGEMENT EDITORIAL JUDGEMENT
- Depth over coverage. Drop anything you would not defend to him in person. - Depth over coverage. Drop anything you would not defend to him in person.