added by Ajinkya Wadhwa and ยท updated 3y ago
How to Write Usefully
- Telling people something they didn't know doesn't always mean surprising them. Sometimes it means telling them something they knew unconsciously but had never put into words. In fact those may be the more valuable insights, because they tend to be more fundamental.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Useful writing is bold, but true.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- Useful writing tells people something true and important that they didn't already know, and tells them as unequivocally as possible.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
sari added 2y ago
- Useful writing makes claims that are as strong as they can be made without becoming false.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- I believe the formula I've given you, importance + novelty + correctness + strength, is the recipe for a good essay.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- It's also two other things: it tells people something important, and that at least some of them didn't already know.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago
- The exciting thing is not that there's a lot left to write, but that there's a lot left to discover. There's a certain kind of idea that's best discovered by writing essays. If most essays are still unwritten, most such ideas are still undiscovered.
from How to Write Usefully by Paul Graham
Ajinkya Wadhwa added 2y ago