writing

By making clear and sharp claims, I reveal my understanding so that I—or the person I’m writing to—can see the state of my knowledge and direct their feedback to the point where it will help my thinking improve.

This is valuable to do even in areas where you know way too little to “warrant” an opinion.

We believe that when we start a new business or creative endeavor, it will be a magnificent event. That we’ll start off with applause. However, what’s far more likely is that after we hit publish, the only thing we’ll hear is the deafening sound of indifference.

Realising my way of writing is akin to Penn and Teller's approach to magic; "Magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect."

My unique advantage / fatal flaw is sinking absurd hours into researching & writing things no one else would ever write about

Putting ideas into words doesn't have to mean writing, of course. You can also do it the old way, by talking. But in my experience, writing is the stricter test. You have to commit to a single, optimal sequence of words. Less can go unsaid when you don't have tone of voice to carry meaning. And you can focus in a way that would seem excessive in co... See more

as people age, they tend to find themselves consuming more and creating less. To put it bluntly: the easiest way to live a short unimportant life is to consume the world around you rather than contribute to it.

Links on the In­ter­net last for­ever or a year, whichever in­con­ve­niences you more. This is a major prob­lem for any­one se­ri­ous about writ­ing with good ref­er­ences, as link rot will crip­ple sev­eral per­cent of all links each year, and com­pound­ing.

I find explaining any actually interesting idea usually requires explaining like 5 subsidiary ideas. If you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky it’s like 25 and either they’re ready for a three hour lecture or you’re not going to succeed.