I find it so irritating and difficult to read when authors needlessly make most of their paragraphs a single sentence. Or use lots of tiny sentences that read like fragments. I guess it's to add effect? Except it doesn't read like it's profound, it's just annoying.
Please stop doing this and just write like you talk. Unless that's also how you talk, in which case please just don't do that.
Given that the author died last Wednesday—this being her last post is likely why it’s front page of HN—I suspect your writing advice might go ignored in this case.
It’s a device used for conveying dramatic feelings in storytelling. You’d never use it in formal communication or technical documents, but there’s no reason to get worked up about it either.
There is a reason - it's tiresome. It reeks to me (personally) of someone who is really really high on their own supply, and if they were speaking it aloud they'd be using a condescending newsreader voice.
It definitely doesn't add clarity for me. Paragraphs group sentences about an idea. Breaking sentences into paragraphs implies that you're starting a new thought. If you're not, it just makes the writing choppy, and it reads with extra pauses in my inner monologue that I think most people wouldn't have if they were speaking rather than writing.
Please stop doing this and just write like you talk. Unless that's also how you talk, in which case please just don't do that.