writing

Perhaps you're the same kind of non- Writer writer. The playful amateur kind who uses it to explore and communicate ideas, rather than making the medium part of your identity. But even amateurs want to be good. I certainly want to get good.

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.

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.

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.

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