the art of writing

If what you want is a content-marketing blog post that serves more to incrementally improve Google search results than to be read by an actual human, AI might help. If you want to think deeply through a subject and synthesize knowledge, then communicate that knowledge to others, it’s going to be better if you just struggle through the painful... See more

If you write to please others, you are selling out. You are in the process of audience capture. This way of talking, which is how the fear in me talks, is common—as if writing for an audience and writing for yourself are at odds with each other. I really used to feel like that.

But I no longer think that it is quite right. The relationship between... See more

I think of writing a lot like walking. It’s rarely the most popular, the most effective, or the most efficient way of getting to your destination. I don’t always want to do it, and it’s not always technically enjoyable; sometimes it’s boring or slow, sometimes it’s tiring and pointless, sometimes it’s cold or wet or windy and I’m retracing the same... See more