So, you want to write something…

2019-07-31

Almost all the writing I’m most proud of was started early in the afternoon and finished at whatever the natural stopping point was, generally between 6 PM and 2 AM.

Patrick Mckenzie (perma)

I have more than 100 text files in my “drafts” folder. Some of them consist only of a few lines; some are hundreds and ... See more

How long does it take to write a post/essay?

How Life Sciences Actually Work: 2 weeks non-stop, so around 100-150 hours of combined thinking and writing

How to make friends over the internet: 12 hours over 2 days

A single Quarterly links post: usually 15 hours over a few days

Doing Good Better post: >100 hours over 6 weeks

Why You Should Start a Blog Ri... See more

3 Decision-Making Frameworks

So what do you do?

I have a few approaches:

1) "Regret Minimization"

I think there are some rare entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg who can walk away from a billion-dollar offer and keep building.

But for most of us, I pose the question: Say you sold today for $10M, and in 3 years, the company was worth $25M. Would you be super s... See more

Social media firms are] coming for every second of your life...And it's not because anyone is bad, it's not because anybody in this company has evil plans or is trying to do this, they're not even doing it consciously. Their entire model is growth. They’re coming for every second of your life. We used to colonize land. Then they realized [let’s go ... See more

For food, the abundance has been necessary to feed a growing population. But by addressing that issue, industrial production of calories has led to an obesity crisis and related healthcare costs. 

A similar problem is happening with digital media. Social apps — largely accessed through smartphones — have helped us communicate, learn, stay connected ... See more

1. Synthesize new ideas constantly. Never read passively. Annotate, model, think, and synthesize while you read, even when you’re reading what you conceive to be introductory stuff. That way, you will always aim towards understanding things at a resolution fine enough for you to be creative.

8. As you develop skills, write up best-practices protocol... See more