This tweet by Paras Chopra

For some reason, and I can’t pinpoint it yet, I thought of this every day for a week when I came across this. When I live in a pool of infinite content, nothing really sticks.  This did. And kind of made me go, “Fine, guess I’ll write now.”

On an extended thought: When AI can do most of your writing work, sure most people just won’t do the writing. And I see how that cuts down on your thinking, learning, simplifying complex ideas, analysing, distilling, and communicating habits. Maybe sticking to writing as a means of clarifying, questioning and testing what you think you know is a great idea then.

The Craft of Writing Effectively by Larry McErnery

Personal opinion: Till you don’t consider yourself a really good writer, watch this video every 3 weeks and keep applying the lessons.

Larry does a reset on the way school taught us writing. There’s an INSANE focus on creating value with what you write. Here is a very unjust summary. I insist you watch it for yourself and learn better things from this.

1. School taught you to write and express what you see or think. However, most writing you end up doing is conversations with your reader to change their ideas/opinions. 
2. A reader-first approach: Who are you writing for? How do they think? What do they believe in? Only when you know these things, can you show them the world from your perspective, pursue them, and change what they think.
3. Good writing should fit the thinking process of the readers. When people read something that wasn’t made to fit with their thinking patterns, they slow down, then don’t understand, then get angry, and then stop reading.
4. Value in a paper is not “Here is what my paper will be about”. It is “Here’s what my paper will argue.”

“We are going to talk about democracy” vs “We are going to argue that democracy eventually crumbles on itself”.

These are different discussions. The argument is obviously, much more interesting because it could change how people think about democracy.

However, I believe all of this is not beginner advice. Step 1 is to create shitty work – a lot of it. Step 2 is to optimise that process for value creation.

AK, Circa 2023: “Pick a bloody pen (or a laptop) and write.”

Bye now,

(Point 3 is a lazy attempt to close this 3-point list because I am way too sleepy right now and am literally resting my head on a water bottle to keep myself awake.)

Until tomorrow,

AK!