How I write essays

The only thing that matters, to me, is to arrange the writing in such a way that I repeatedly return to ideas again and again . I want to reread and make comments and rearrange my notes, not just type it and move on. The reason for that: I’m not particularly interesting or insightful at any point in time, but if I let five or ten Henriks layer thei... See more

I don’t write to simply generate a 1,200 word output. I consider writing to be an extension of my curiosity, and the writing process itself is what turns a rough idea into a finished product. I begin with a vague idea based on some observation of the world, and I put that on paper. As I’m writing that idea, two distant synapses in my brain connect,... See more

This is what I do for everything I post:

1. Write all of my thoughts on a subject.


2. Argue against those ideas.


3. Explore different angles until I’m sick of it.


4. Leave it for a few days or years, then repeat those steps.


5. Hate how messy these thoughts have become.


6. Reduce them to a tiny outline of the key points.


7. Post the outline. Trash the rest.

Looking back at all the tools and techniques that I've developed over the years as a writer, it occurs to me that most of them are, in one way or another, grappling with two critical mental forces: the power (and weakness) of human memory, and the sometimes overwhelming drive to procrastinate.