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Jayne Anne Phillips just won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel called "Night Watch." She’s written six books and founded the Rutgers-Newark MFA Program and this episode is all about her approach to writing. Some lessons below: 1. It's strange what you don't forget. Those things are a key... to who you are and what really matters to you. 2. “When I’m writing, nothing is going through my head.” 3. Your job as a writer is to listen to the work itself because it'll tell you what to write next. 4. Every novel teaches its reader how to read it. It’s a unique world with its own rules, rhythm, relationships, and way of perceiving reality. 5. Writing is fundamentally about perception, and it's the author's job to show the reader how they perceive the world. 6. What's unique about children is the way they formulate their own conclusions by looking for truths that are truer than the ones they've been given. 7. We are creatures of narrative. We think in terms of words and in terms of images. 8. Small towns are webs of secrets beneath the surface: There's always a world underneath the world, and children hearing adult conversations know this better than anyone. 9. Jayne tells a story: “Someone said to me once: 'When I read your work, I don't feel as though I'm reading about something. I feel as though I'm inside it.' That is exactly what I want the reader to feel." 10. Find your writing allies. Some will be living writers, others will be dead ones, but no matter what, it’s worth reading all their work. 11. Language is like music. Every word is a different note, and the best way to find the flat notes is to read your writing out loud. 12. It's all intensely meaningful, no matter how terrible life can sometimes be. I've shared the full interview with Jayne Anne Phillips below. If you'd rather watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets. Enjoy!show more

David Perell

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48,550 views • 1 year ago •via X (Twitter)

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Watch this game-changing dissertation on "expert writing." Expert writers write to "think" about the world. 99% of experts write and think at the same time. They use the writing process to help themselves think. This is how they do their best thinking. Write to think about the world. Do this because you care, because you want to be part of progress, because you want to make a dent in the universe. Write to inspire and influence. And when you are finished writing, and you click publish, think about your work this way... the intent of your text is to cause readers to change the way they think about the world. Engagement metrics don't really matter in comparison. Whether or not your text is valuable, depends on whether or not your readers perceive that you have valuably changed what they think, or what they do, or how they decide. One of the reasons it's so hard for smart people to write well is because they don't write to change the way people think about the world. They write to complete a project, to earn a grade, to be assessed. Or they write to publish *their* thoughts without going through a mental and soulful exercise of writing to think about the world, without writing to change how people think about the world. Write to think about the world. Change how people think about the world. In an era of #GenerativeAI, content isn't the end game. Your goal isn't just to get someone's attention, generate reactions, or show up in search. Your mission is to change how people think about the world. Change How People Think About the World. Thank you, Larry McEnerney (now-retired former Director of the University of Chicago's Writing Program).

Watch this game-changing dissertation on "expert writing." Expert writers write to "think" about the world. 99% of experts write and think at the same time. They use the writing process to help themselves think. This is how they do their best thinking. Write to think about the world. Do this because you care, because you want to be part of progress, because you want to make a dent in the universe. Write to inspire and influence. And when you are finished writing, and you click publish, think about your work this way... the intent of your text is to cause readers to change the way they think about the world. Engagement metrics don't really matter in comparison. Whether or not your text is valuable, depends on whether or not your readers perceive that you have valuably changed what they think, or what they do, or how they decide. One of the reasons it's so hard for smart people to write well is because they don't write to change the way people think about the world. They write to complete a project, to earn a grade, to be assessed. Or they write to publish their thoughts without going through a mental and soulful exercise of writing to think about the world, without writing to change how people think about the world. Write to think about the world. Change how people think about the world. In an era of #GenerativeAI, content isn't the end game. Your goal isn't just to get someone's attention, generate reactions, or show up in search. Your mission is to change how people think about the world. Change How People Think About the World. Thank you, Larry McEnerney (now-retired former Director of the University of Chicago's Writing Program).

Brian Solis

113,698 views • 3 years ago

"One great detail will do the work of 50 crappy sentences." Wright Thompson is one of the last great magazine writers in America. He's long been a writer at ESPN, and if you love sports, you've almost definitely read his work. Maybe his profile of Tiger Woods. Or maybe the one about Michael Jordan. Some highlights: - "When somebody says something is overwritten, it really just means that the story is underreported." - Profiles are about figuring out what is a central complication of somebody's life and how, on a daily basis, they go about solving it. - "All of these stories, the few good ones I've written... I think these stories are like a prayer for empathy, to try to understand each other, to understand another human being a little bit at a time. Then slowly, thread by thread, you understand yourself." - On writing well: "One of the things that's missing is that nobody wants to hear what I have to say, which is just reps. Zen is a butt in a seat. There's no mystery. It's just reps." - "I wish someone had told me years ago that if you're going to be a professional writer for decades, writing is not going to be about words, but it's going to be about architecture. Only when you really understand how things fit together and move can you then actually be thinking about the words." - "All writing is trying to say something new that is true and is both specific and universal and that helps the reader understand something they didn't understand before, preferably about themselves." And here are the timestamps: 1:50 Writer's vomit vs. writer's block 8:33 The architecture of writing 11:30 What makes for a good story? 15:57 Bringing characters to life 21:11 "The hammer" 26:26 Writing a vivid scene 33:41 How to bring places to life 39:57 Dialogue vs. quotes 45:49 The role of secondary characters 51:44 The problem with "brainstorming" 1:02:13 What makes for a great ending? I've shared the full conversation with Wright Thompson below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen to the full thing on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

552,796 views • 4 months ago

Alain de Botton has written ~17 books and runs the School of Life YouTube channel, which now has almost 10 million subscribers. And this is a rare interview for him. Some highlights: 1. A clear night sky is a challenge to everything we think we know. 2. If we really took on board what that night sky is telling us, we'd have to lie down and just question absolutely everything. 3. Writer's block is a conflict between shame and the desire for honesty. 4. The effect of mass media is to industrialize and commercialize our thinking, which leaves no room for the free thinker, the honest thinker, and the authentic thinker. 5. You've got to be attentive to your own sensations and thoughts. That's the real work of writing. 6. Every person is an incredible library of sensations but so often, particularly in the academic world, people think: “Let’s ignore ourselves as a source of data and find out what Cicero said, or what Socrates said, or what Michel Foucault said." 7. Writing can be revenge for the silenced person, which is why so many writers are meek in person but fierce on the page. 8. A work of art is the best thing you can do with your dislocation and distress, and sometimes, it’s even an alternative to losing your mind. 9. Emerson said: "In the minds of geniuses, we find our own neglected thoughts." 10. The thoughts of geniuses aren’t fundamentally different from others. It’s just that they’re able to put words to sensations we’ve long felt but couldn’t articulate. 11. Writing prompt: If there were no rules, if you couldn't fail, if no one was going to laugh, if you were going to be dead tomorrow, what would you actually do and say? How would you write, let's say? That's the thing you should write. I've shared the full conversation with Alain de Botton below. You can watch here or on YouTube, and listen on Apple or Spotify. You'll find the links in the reply tweets.

Alain de Botton has written ~17 books and runs the School of Life YouTube channel, which now has almost 10 million subscribers. And this is a rare interview for him. Some highlights: 1. A clear night sky is a challenge to everything we think we know. 2. If we really took on board what that night sky is telling us, we'd have to lie down and just question absolutely everything. 3. Writer's block is a conflict between shame and the desire for honesty. 4. The effect of mass media is to industrialize and commercialize our thinking, which leaves no room for the free thinker, the honest thinker, and the authentic thinker. 5. You've got to be attentive to your own sensations and thoughts. That's the real work of writing. 6. Every person is an incredible library of sensations but so often, particularly in the academic world, people think: “Let’s ignore ourselves as a source of data and find out what Cicero said, or what Socrates said, or what Michel Foucault said." 7. Writing can be revenge for the silenced person, which is why so many writers are meek in person but fierce on the page. 8. A work of art is the best thing you can do with your dislocation and distress, and sometimes, it’s even an alternative to losing your mind. 9. Emerson said: "In the minds of geniuses, we find our own neglected thoughts." 10. The thoughts of geniuses aren’t fundamentally different from others. It’s just that they’re able to put words to sensations we’ve long felt but couldn’t articulate. 11. Writing prompt: If there were no rules, if you couldn't fail, if no one was going to laugh, if you were going to be dead tomorrow, what would you actually do and say? How would you write, let's say? That's the thing you should write. I've shared the full conversation with Alain de Botton below. You can watch here or on YouTube, and listen on Apple or Spotify. You'll find the links in the reply tweets.

David Perell

272,403 views • 1 year ago

Announcing: Writing Examples Today is launch day! We built this website to celebrate great writing. It’s 100% free. Each article deconstructs a piece of writing from an iconic writer. The goal is to give you X-Ray vision into what makes sentences and paragraphs come alive (so that you can improve at your craft). Every example has an analysis of why the writing works. Analytical often means dry. But instead of going technical, we’ve gone technicolor. There are text-explainers, summary graphics, and videos that come together to make the writing instruction lively and multi-dimensional. It’s a place where you can discover how great writing comes together. Where we lift up the hood and see the mechanics in action. It isn’t about giving you a set of rules to follow. It’s about showing the diversity of ways writers approach their craft, so you can develop your own style. What are some of the articles about? You’ll learn how to describe a party like F. Scott Fitzgerald, how to tell a story like George Orwell, how to write a speech like John F. Kennedy. There are other articles inspired by the likes of John Steinbeck, James Clear, Winston Churchill, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Steven Pressfield, and Jerry Seinfeld. Writing Examples is a crusade against the sterility of contemporary writing. So much of the advice you read says the same thing: “Be direct. Cut the fluff. Get to the point. Stick to short sentences.” And yeah, sure, this advice has merit. It’s useful in certain cases, but the problem is writers take these rules to be universal, which has homogenized writing styles. Even in my own writing, there’ve been so many times where I’ve stripped away my own voice in the name of “correctness.” I regret that. The truth is, there is no one way to write well, just as there is no one way to speak well. The way you speak in a boardroom is different from the way you speak on a first date, which is different from the way you speak with your childhood best friends. Writing is similar. Writing Examples is the opposite of Grammarly. It celebrates the wild, wacky, and the weird because it’s the bedrock of personality. The site’s explicit purpose is to inject some High Noon Chutzpah back into the world of writing. To teach you how to write with distinctly human fingerprints in a world that’s about to be flooded with AI-generated content. Forget playing it safe. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do in a world of instant writing. I want you to write with personality. I want you to play with punctuation. I want you to ditch the corporatized hogwash. I want to expand your sense of what great writing can be. And I want you to have fun doing it. But there’s more to the mission. Writing Examples is a protest against today’s Internet, where people spend the majority of their time reading ad-polluted articles and doom-scrolling the same few social media sites. Remember when we used to surf the Internet? When every site was its own wave to ride? Now, we’re like phone-addicted zombies, we mindlessly scroll Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram until we feel bad about ourselves — only to repeat the cycle a few hours later. Writing Examples is different. Heartfelt writing deserves a heartfelt presentation, so every element of the site has been designed from scratch. Energetically, we wanted to honor the gravitas of classic writing without the sleepiness of a drab old library shelf. We said no to ads. We said no to pop-ups. No hijacking your attention. None of the flat white backgrounds that make the Internet feel so homogenous. And we said no to anything that feels like your 5th-grade English class. Writing Examples isn’t about what’s trending. It’s about learning from the great writers of times past, most of whom you know, many of whom you probably haven’t taken the time to read. The ultimate goal is to make Writing Examples a one-stop shop to learn about any kind of writing you can think of. Now, I dare you to dive into the site and get to work.

Announcing: Writing Examples Today is launch day! We built this website to celebrate great writing. It’s 100% free. Each article deconstructs a piece of writing from an iconic writer. The goal is to give you X-Ray vision into what makes sentences and paragraphs come alive (so that you can improve at your craft). Every example has an analysis of why the writing works. Analytical often means dry. But instead of going technical, we’ve gone technicolor. There are text-explainers, summary graphics, and videos that come together to make the writing instruction lively and multi-dimensional. It’s a place where you can discover how great writing comes together. Where we lift up the hood and see the mechanics in action. It isn’t about giving you a set of rules to follow. It’s about showing the diversity of ways writers approach their craft, so you can develop your own style. What are some of the articles about? You’ll learn how to describe a party like F. Scott Fitzgerald, how to tell a story like George Orwell, how to write a speech like John F. Kennedy. There are other articles inspired by the likes of John Steinbeck, James Clear, Winston Churchill, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Steven Pressfield, and Jerry Seinfeld. Writing Examples is a crusade against the sterility of contemporary writing. So much of the advice you read says the same thing: “Be direct. Cut the fluff. Get to the point. Stick to short sentences.” And yeah, sure, this advice has merit. It’s useful in certain cases, but the problem is writers take these rules to be universal, which has homogenized writing styles. Even in my own writing, there’ve been so many times where I’ve stripped away my own voice in the name of “correctness.” I regret that. The truth is, there is no one way to write well, just as there is no one way to speak well. The way you speak in a boardroom is different from the way you speak on a first date, which is different from the way you speak with your childhood best friends. Writing is similar. Writing Examples is the opposite of Grammarly. It celebrates the wild, wacky, and the weird because it’s the bedrock of personality. The site’s explicit purpose is to inject some High Noon Chutzpah back into the world of writing. To teach you how to write with distinctly human fingerprints in a world that’s about to be flooded with AI-generated content. Forget playing it safe. That’s the most dangerous thing you can do in a world of instant writing. I want you to write with personality. I want you to play with punctuation. I want you to ditch the corporatized hogwash. I want to expand your sense of what great writing can be. And I want you to have fun doing it. But there’s more to the mission. Writing Examples is a protest against today’s Internet, where people spend the majority of their time reading ad-polluted articles and doom-scrolling the same few social media sites. Remember when we used to surf the Internet? When every site was its own wave to ride? Now, we’re like phone-addicted zombies, we mindlessly scroll Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram until we feel bad about ourselves — only to repeat the cycle a few hours later. Writing Examples is different. Heartfelt writing deserves a heartfelt presentation, so every element of the site has been designed from scratch. Energetically, we wanted to honor the gravitas of classic writing without the sleepiness of a drab old library shelf. We said no to ads. We said no to pop-ups. No hijacking your attention. None of the flat white backgrounds that make the Internet feel so homogenous. And we said no to anything that feels like your 5th-grade English class. Writing Examples isn’t about what’s trending. It’s about learning from the great writers of times past, most of whom you know, many of whom you probably haven’t taken the time to read. The ultimate goal is to make Writing Examples a one-stop shop to learn about any kind of writing you can think of. Now, I dare you to dive into the site and get to work.

David Perell

688,191 views • 1 year ago

Ocean Vuong is a poet, novelist, and professor at NYU. This is the anti writing with AI conversation. It's about breaking free from technology and convention in order to see the world fresh again, and then make beautiful art about what you see. Some highlights: 1) "We're out here to write sentences the species has never encountered, and it's possible in this lifetime." 2) "Eighty percent of writing is looking and thinking. The last part is syntax." 3) "When you have a sentence, what you really have is consciousness filtered through syntax. For every single person, it's different." And below are all the things we talked about, in the form of timestamps: 1:40 Writing metaphors 4:52 The problem with writing workshops 13:02 How AI changed writing 23:32 Why did writing get so rigid? 28:04 Rescue the cliche! 32:06 Seeing vs. recognizing 34:37 80% of writing isn't writing 41:31 What makes sentences memorable 50:31 Poetry as a testing ground for writers 1:02:30 Synchronic vs diachronic reading 1:09:03 Daringness and disobedience 1:14:27 The limits of language I've shared the full interview with Ocean below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

Ocean Vuong is a poet, novelist, and professor at NYU. This is the anti writing with AI conversation. It's about breaking free from technology and convention in order to see the world fresh again, and then make beautiful art about what you see. Some highlights: 1) "We're out here to write sentences the species has never encountered, and it's possible in this lifetime." 2) "Eighty percent of writing is looking and thinking. The last part is syntax." 3) "When you have a sentence, what you really have is consciousness filtered through syntax. For every single person, it's different." And below are all the things we talked about, in the form of timestamps: 1:40 Writing metaphors 4:52 The problem with writing workshops 13:02 How AI changed writing 23:32 Why did writing get so rigid? 28:04 Rescue the cliche! 32:06 Seeing vs. recognizing 34:37 80% of writing isn't writing 41:31 What makes sentences memorable 50:31 Poetry as a testing ground for writers 1:02:30 Synchronic vs diachronic reading 1:09:03 Daringness and disobedience 1:14:27 The limits of language I've shared the full interview with Ocean below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

328,524 views • 4 months ago

Steven Pinker is Harvard's most famous psychology professor, the author of nine books, and one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Some highlights from our interview: 1. The curse of knowledge is the biggest threat to clear writing. 2. The easiest way to fight this curse of knowledge is to show drafts of your writing to people outside your field. 3. It can be harder to write about a topic you’re an expert in because it’s so easy to forget what it's like to not know something, which makes you overestimate what the reader knows. 4. Shakespeare said: "Brevity is the soul of wit." The point is that saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better because it requires less cognitive load for the reader to understand. 5. Ok, let's try again: Saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better. 6. Ok, one more time: Remove needless words. 7. One reason why writing is harder than speaking is there's no real-time feedback. You have to imagine the audience's reaction. 7. The best thing you can say about how LLMs write is that the sentence structure is sound. But the downside is how generic and banal the outputs are. 8. 18th and 19th century writing is more vivid because the abstractions that modern writers use hadn't been invented yet. Calling somebody "pathologically aggressive" isn’t nearly as vivid as saying: "They grabbed me by the throat." 9. Generalizations without examples are useless, and examples without generalizations are pointless. You need to marry them both. Generalizations show the big picture. Examples make them concrete. 10. The more vivid a piece of writing, the more people can form a mental image of what you’re saying. Avoid abstractions: frameworks, paradigms, concepts. All those things. Get concrete, so people can see what you’re actually talking about. For example, don’t talk about a “stimulus that awakened your senses” when you can say: “I got excited because I saw a cute bunny rabbit.” 11. Academic writing should be clear. I mean… if the taxpayers are funding most of the research, shouldn’t they be able to understand it?!? I've shared the full conversation with Steven Pinker below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

Steven Pinker is Harvard's most famous psychology professor, the author of nine books, and one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Some highlights from our interview: 1. The curse of knowledge is the biggest threat to clear writing. 2. The easiest way to fight this curse of knowledge is to show drafts of your writing to people outside your field. 3. It can be harder to write about a topic you’re an expert in because it’s so easy to forget what it's like to not know something, which makes you overestimate what the reader knows. 4. Shakespeare said: "Brevity is the soul of wit." The point is that saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better because it requires less cognitive load for the reader to understand. 5. Ok, let's try again: Saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better. 6. Ok, one more time: Remove needless words. 7. One reason why writing is harder than speaking is there's no real-time feedback. You have to imagine the audience's reaction. 7. The best thing you can say about how LLMs write is that the sentence structure is sound. But the downside is how generic and banal the outputs are. 8. 18th and 19th century writing is more vivid because the abstractions that modern writers use hadn't been invented yet. Calling somebody "pathologically aggressive" isn’t nearly as vivid as saying: "They grabbed me by the throat." 9. Generalizations without examples are useless, and examples without generalizations are pointless. You need to marry them both. Generalizations show the big picture. Examples make them concrete. 10. The more vivid a piece of writing, the more people can form a mental image of what you’re saying. Avoid abstractions: frameworks, paradigms, concepts. All those things. Get concrete, so people can see what you’re actually talking about. For example, don’t talk about a “stimulus that awakened your senses” when you can say: “I got excited because I saw a cute bunny rabbit.” 11. Academic writing should be clear. I mean… if the taxpayers are funding most of the research, shouldn’t they be able to understand it?!? I've shared the full conversation with Steven Pinker below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

107,348 views • 1 year ago

Rick Rubin tells Andrew Huberman how he deals with creative or writer’s block. He treats his work like a diary entry (and doesn’t worry about internal or external judgment): ➡️ “What's the cause of the block? The block is usually something that's either personal ("I'm not good enough") or it can be a confidence issue ("I don't have anything to say") or it could be...thinking about someone else ("nobody's going to like what I make"). Do you know what I'm saying? So, it's either fear of self-judgment or external judgment. If you're making something with a freedom of "this is something I'm making for myself for now", that is all [you have to do]. It is a diary entry. Everything I make is a diary entry. The beauty of a diary entry is that I can write my diary entry and you can't tell me that my diary entry wasn't good enough. Or that [the diary entry] is not what I experienced. Of course it's what I experienced: I'm writing a personal diary for myself and no one else can judge if it is my experience of my life. Everything we make can be that: a personal reflection of who we are in that moment of time. It doesn't have to be the greatest you could ever do. It doesn't have to have any expectation that it's going to change the world. It doesn't have to sell a certain number of copies for any reason. It doesn't have any of those things at all. It is "I'm making this thing for me and I want to do it to the best of my ability and to where I feel good about it". [The work] is honest of where I'm at and if you're living in this world of just being honest to where you're at, there's nothing blocking you. There are no blocks. The blocks are all based on dealing with a different force or a different perception that is made up.” ⬅️

Rick Rubin tells Andrew Huberman how he deals with creative or writer’s block. He treats his work like a diary entry (and doesn’t worry about internal or external judgment): ➡️ “What's the cause of the block? The block is usually something that's either personal ("I'm not good enough") or it can be a confidence issue ("I don't have anything to say") or it could be...thinking about someone else ("nobody's going to like what I make"). Do you know what I'm saying? So, it's either fear of self-judgment or external judgment. If you're making something with a freedom of "this is something I'm making for myself for now", that is all [you have to do]. It is a diary entry. Everything I make is a diary entry. The beauty of a diary entry is that I can write my diary entry and you can't tell me that my diary entry wasn't good enough. Or that [the diary entry] is not what I experienced. Of course it's what I experienced: I'm writing a personal diary for myself and no one else can judge if it is my experience of my life. Everything we make can be that: a personal reflection of who we are in that moment of time. It doesn't have to be the greatest you could ever do. It doesn't have to have any expectation that it's going to change the world. It doesn't have to sell a certain number of copies for any reason. It doesn't have any of those things at all. It is "I'm making this thing for me and I want to do it to the best of my ability and to where I feel good about it". [The work] is honest of where I'm at and if you're living in this world of just being honest to where you're at, there's nothing blocking you. There are no blocks. The blocks are all based on dealing with a different force or a different perception that is made up.” ⬅️

Trung Phan

1,619,840 views • 2 years ago

David Whyte is one of the world’s top living poets. He’s been writing seriously for ~50 years, and this interview is all about his love for language and philosophy of life. The highlights: 1. Poetry is the act of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. 2. Anger is the deepest form of care. 3. Good writing keeps the world alive as you name it. 4. Time is not slipping through our fingers; it is we who are slipping through the fingers of time. 5. “Pathmaker there is no path. You make the path by walking. By walking, you make the path.” — Antonio Machado 6. Just about every emotion, if a human being can feel it, is meant to be felt. 7. Poetry is language against which we have no defenses. 8. We often use language as a defense mechanism. Instead of allowing ourselves to fully experience an emotion, we'll name them in ways that create distance and keep us “safe” from having to feel them deeply. 9. When we talk to other people, how often are we trying to throw our voice into their bodies so they'll say what we want them to say? 10. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn what we most desperately need to learn. 11. In the Gospels, Peter is only able to walk on water for as long as he’s focused on Jesus calling to him, but begins to sink the moment he looks back at the boat (which represents safety and his own life). 12. There's no way you can follow your passion without having your heart broken. I've shared the full conversation with David Whyte below. If you'd prefer to watch on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets. Enjoy!

David Whyte is one of the world’s top living poets. He’s been writing seriously for ~50 years, and this interview is all about his love for language and philosophy of life. The highlights: 1. Poetry is the act of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. 2. Anger is the deepest form of care. 3. Good writing keeps the world alive as you name it. 4. Time is not slipping through our fingers; it is we who are slipping through the fingers of time. 5. “Pathmaker there is no path. You make the path by walking. By walking, you make the path.” — Antonio Machado 6. Just about every emotion, if a human being can feel it, is meant to be felt. 7. Poetry is language against which we have no defenses. 8. We often use language as a defense mechanism. Instead of allowing ourselves to fully experience an emotion, we'll name them in ways that create distance and keep us “safe” from having to feel them deeply. 9. When we talk to other people, how often are we trying to throw our voice into their bodies so they'll say what we want them to say? 10. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn what we most desperately need to learn. 11. In the Gospels, Peter is only able to walk on water for as long as he’s focused on Jesus calling to him, but begins to sink the moment he looks back at the boat (which represents safety and his own life). 12. There's no way you can follow your passion without having your heart broken. I've shared the full conversation with David Whyte below. If you'd prefer to watch on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets. Enjoy!

David Perell

120,199 views • 1 year ago

Conor Neill: "If you can't write it clearly, the thinking was weak, not the writing" "To believe that something that feels clear in your head is thinking that's a very dangerous thing. When you try to put it down on a page, when you try to lay out your ideas in a structured order that someone else can digest, and you realize that you can't, I suggest the thinking was weak, not the writing." Neill explains his philosophy: "Writing is thinking. The process of taking a notepad, capturing thoughts, laying out the things that I'm thinking about, that is thinking. Sitting and staring out a window, maybe with a cigarette, whatever it is that you think is philosophizing that is not structured thinking. It's only when you're writing down and structuring, getting order into your thoughts on a page so that another person is able to get into the context, the perspective, the different things that you are pulling in to have your worldview." He shares a simple technique: "No matter what you are writing, whether it's an email, a Word document, when you've got a blank sheet of paper, start with the word 'This.' T-H-I-S. Starting with the word 'This' forces you to explain what the document is. It forces you to articulate to the reader what it is that they are holding. It forces you to describe why this document exists, what the objective is. And if you begin with the objective, it helps the reader, and it helps you articulate clearly why you are taking the time to write." Neill shares the most-read post on his blog: "The one post that has got far more views than any other is a post I wrote called 'Why Amazon Banned PowerPoint.' In Amazon, if a presenter wishes to ask people to agree to a budget, to agree to give them resources, they don't use PowerPoint. They write a six-page Word document that states why they are asking for the money and the resources." He explains Jeff Bezos's reasoning: "PowerPoint is easy for the presenter, but it's hard for the people who listen. Writing a six-page essay is hard for the presenter, but it's a lot easier for the people that get to read the document." And there's a second part to the Amazon method: "In the management meeting, the first 20 minutes is reading time. If you have gone to the effort to write six pages explaining your proposal, you deserve to see your work read. You deserve to sit there and see people reading through your work. People will not read before the meeting. The only way you get people to fully digest the six pages is by holding them there for 20 minutes, reading through, noting down their questions. No debate, no discussion until everyone in the room has read all six pages, has taken in the context, has time to think about what they would like to question. After 20 minutes of silent reading, they can have a discussion but an informed discussion." Neill shares a second insight about writing: "Divide writing from editing. Writing is producing words. Editing is improving words. These two processes — you cannot run at the same time." He explains his approach: "Most writers just vomit out a bad first draft. I personally have learned to produce 500 words in one straight blast. If something's wrong, if I need to check a fact, if I want to go back and fix something, I don't. I go 500 words of just getting it out onto the page. When I've got 500 words, then I'll stop and begin the process of editing." Neill shares what great writers understand: "All great writing is rewriting. It's editing. It's the crafting of taking a bad, crappy first draft and slowly iterating it, improving it 1% each time through. But if you haven't got that first draft, there's nothing to improve." He explains how separating these processes changed everything: "Learning to separate these two was one of the most powerful things to get rid of writer's block, to get rid of getting stuck, to get rid of procrastination. My mission when I sit down to write is: decide, am I writing or editing? If it's writing, get 500 bad words down on the page in the next 20 minutes. If it's editing, take the time to go through, improve sentences, change the order, change the structure. But these are two separate processes." Neill reveals the truth about good writing: "Some of my best articles started out as a bad blog post. Then I rewrote it as an article to give out to students. Then I rewrote it to share on another blog. Then I rewrote it to provide to a magazine. It's the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth time of rewriting where it starts to be something that other people read and say, 'Wow, you're quite good at writing.' And the answer is I'm not good at writing. I vomit out a bad first draft and then go through this iterative process. One time, two times, three times, four times through slowly improving. But if you have no first draft, there's nothing to improve."

Conor Neill: "If you can't write it clearly, the thinking was weak, not the writing" "To believe that something that feels clear in your head is thinking that's a very dangerous thing. When you try to put it down on a page, when you try to lay out your ideas in a structured order that someone else can digest, and you realize that you can't, I suggest the thinking was weak, not the writing." Neill explains his philosophy: "Writing is thinking. The process of taking a notepad, capturing thoughts, laying out the things that I'm thinking about, that is thinking. Sitting and staring out a window, maybe with a cigarette, whatever it is that you think is philosophizing that is not structured thinking. It's only when you're writing down and structuring, getting order into your thoughts on a page so that another person is able to get into the context, the perspective, the different things that you are pulling in to have your worldview." He shares a simple technique: "No matter what you are writing, whether it's an email, a Word document, when you've got a blank sheet of paper, start with the word 'This.' T-H-I-S. Starting with the word 'This' forces you to explain what the document is. It forces you to articulate to the reader what it is that they are holding. It forces you to describe why this document exists, what the objective is. And if you begin with the objective, it helps the reader, and it helps you articulate clearly why you are taking the time to write." Neill shares the most-read post on his blog: "The one post that has got far more views than any other is a post I wrote called 'Why Amazon Banned PowerPoint.' In Amazon, if a presenter wishes to ask people to agree to a budget, to agree to give them resources, they don't use PowerPoint. They write a six-page Word document that states why they are asking for the money and the resources." He explains Jeff Bezos's reasoning: "PowerPoint is easy for the presenter, but it's hard for the people who listen. Writing a six-page essay is hard for the presenter, but it's a lot easier for the people that get to read the document." And there's a second part to the Amazon method: "In the management meeting, the first 20 minutes is reading time. If you have gone to the effort to write six pages explaining your proposal, you deserve to see your work read. You deserve to sit there and see people reading through your work. People will not read before the meeting. The only way you get people to fully digest the six pages is by holding them there for 20 minutes, reading through, noting down their questions. No debate, no discussion until everyone in the room has read all six pages, has taken in the context, has time to think about what they would like to question. After 20 minutes of silent reading, they can have a discussion but an informed discussion." Neill shares a second insight about writing: "Divide writing from editing. Writing is producing words. Editing is improving words. These two processes — you cannot run at the same time." He explains his approach: "Most writers just vomit out a bad first draft. I personally have learned to produce 500 words in one straight blast. If something's wrong, if I need to check a fact, if I want to go back and fix something, I don't. I go 500 words of just getting it out onto the page. When I've got 500 words, then I'll stop and begin the process of editing." Neill shares what great writers understand: "All great writing is rewriting. It's editing. It's the crafting of taking a bad, crappy first draft and slowly iterating it, improving it 1% each time through. But if you haven't got that first draft, there's nothing to improve." He explains how separating these processes changed everything: "Learning to separate these two was one of the most powerful things to get rid of writer's block, to get rid of getting stuck, to get rid of procrastination. My mission when I sit down to write is: decide, am I writing or editing? If it's writing, get 500 bad words down on the page in the next 20 minutes. If it's editing, take the time to go through, improve sentences, change the order, change the structure. But these are two separate processes." Neill reveals the truth about good writing: "Some of my best articles started out as a bad blog post. Then I rewrote it as an article to give out to students. Then I rewrote it to share on another blog. Then I rewrote it to provide to a magazine. It's the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth time of rewriting where it starts to be something that other people read and say, 'Wow, you're quite good at writing.' And the answer is I'm not good at writing. I vomit out a bad first draft and then go through this iterative process. One time, two times, three times, four times through slowly improving. But if you have no first draft, there's nothing to improve."

Jaynit

18,165 views • 3 months ago

Paul Harding spent 15 years writing a novel that dozens of publishers rejected, only to finally get it published and win the Pulitzer Prize. Some highlights from our conversation: 1. Your writing can only be as good as the best stuff you’ve read. 2. Don't write for bad readers. Don't write for readers who won't like what you're doing. 3. Get allergic to pre-fabricated phrases: So much language is spoken unconsciously. It’s riddled with cliches. It’s fine to use it in your day-to-day life but bringing it to the page is a recipe for terrible writing. 4 How can you break free from pre-fabricated language? Try the counterpoint technique: If something is liquid, describe it as a solid; if something is white, describe it as black; if something is quiet, describe it as loud. You get the idea. This simple exercise will break you out of the linguistic autopilot that so many people are stuck in. 5. Want to observe the world more carefully? Slow down. 6. Paul’s mantra for good writing: Maximum density, maximum readability. It means packing as much meaning into every sentence without making it feel like a mountain. 7. Get intimate with your favorite books. Literature is the only art where people say 'I read that once.' Nobody says that about their favorite album. 8. Paul Harding tried writing political novels because he thought that’s what he was supposed to do, only to realize that they were awful. Then he surrendered to his artistic grain and started writing what he actually cared about (and only then could he have won the Pulitzer Prize). 9. The biggest barrier to quality writing is the idea that you already know what you’re looking at. Drop that presumption. Drop all use of received, acculturated, or habituated language. Writing is a fight against the brain’s tendency to categorize the world and move on. 10. Good writing shouldn’t feel cluttered, but it’s fine to have a very cluttered first draft because it’s so much easier to remove things than add things over time. 11. The problem with answers, as opposed to questions, is that they can close off thinking as opposed to opening it up. Paul says: "If somebody reads my book and gets what the point is, they never have to think about it again." 12. Give yourself permission to be ridiculously ambitious. Melville was just trying to write a book as good as Hamlet. Shakespeare is just trying to write a book that was as good as the Joseph story in Genesis. Paul says: "You're not trying to write a crappy book, are you? Wouldn't you like to write a book that's as good as your favorite book?" I've shared the full conversation with Paul Harding below, and the links for YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts in the reply tweets.

Paul Harding spent 15 years writing a novel that dozens of publishers rejected, only to finally get it published and win the Pulitzer Prize. Some highlights from our conversation: 1. Your writing can only be as good as the best stuff you’ve read. 2. Don't write for bad readers. Don't write for readers who won't like what you're doing. 3. Get allergic to pre-fabricated phrases: So much language is spoken unconsciously. It’s riddled with cliches. It’s fine to use it in your day-to-day life but bringing it to the page is a recipe for terrible writing. 4 How can you break free from pre-fabricated language? Try the counterpoint technique: If something is liquid, describe it as a solid; if something is white, describe it as black; if something is quiet, describe it as loud. You get the idea. This simple exercise will break you out of the linguistic autopilot that so many people are stuck in. 5. Want to observe the world more carefully? Slow down. 6. Paul’s mantra for good writing: Maximum density, maximum readability. It means packing as much meaning into every sentence without making it feel like a mountain. 7. Get intimate with your favorite books. Literature is the only art where people say 'I read that once.' Nobody says that about their favorite album. 8. Paul Harding tried writing political novels because he thought that’s what he was supposed to do, only to realize that they were awful. Then he surrendered to his artistic grain and started writing what he actually cared about (and only then could he have won the Pulitzer Prize). 9. The biggest barrier to quality writing is the idea that you already know what you’re looking at. Drop that presumption. Drop all use of received, acculturated, or habituated language. Writing is a fight against the brain’s tendency to categorize the world and move on. 10. Good writing shouldn’t feel cluttered, but it’s fine to have a very cluttered first draft because it’s so much easier to remove things than add things over time. 11. The problem with answers, as opposed to questions, is that they can close off thinking as opposed to opening it up. Paul says: "If somebody reads my book and gets what the point is, they never have to think about it again." 12. Give yourself permission to be ridiculously ambitious. Melville was just trying to write a book as good as Hamlet. Shakespeare is just trying to write a book that was as good as the Joseph story in Genesis. Paul says: "You're not trying to write a crappy book, are you? Wouldn't you like to write a book that's as good as your favorite book?" I've shared the full conversation with Paul Harding below, and the links for YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts in the reply tweets.

David Perell

158,574 views • 1 year ago

Kevin Kelly is one of the most influential tech writers of the last half-century. He's published 14 books, founded Wired magazine, and maybe even traveled to more places in Asia than anybody in human history. Here are 28 of his best maxims for writing: 1. Don't aim to be the best. Be the only. 2. Don’t create things to make money; make money so you can create things. 3. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. 4. Always demand a deadline. Doing so weeds out the superfluous and prevents you from insisting on perfection (which will limit you as a writer). 5. To write about something hard to explain, write a detailed letter to a friend about why it is so hard to explain, and then remove the initial “Dear Friend” part and you’ll have a great first draft. 6. The work on any worthy piece of writing is endless and infinite. Since you cannot limit the work, you must limit your hours. 7. Books are never finished, only abandoned. 8. When you are stuck, sleep on it. Give your subconscious an assignment while you sleep. You’ll have an answer in the morning or by the next time you sit down to write. 9. A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea. 10. The greatest teacher is called “doing.” 11. Efficiency is highly overrated; goofing off is highly underrated. 12. If you have a good idea, write it down. Don't assume you'll remember it. 13. Writing is not selfish; it's for the rest of us. If you don't do your thing and share your writing, you are cheating us. 14. Most articles and stories are improved significantly if you delete the first page of the manuscript. Start with the action. 15. The best way to learn anything is to teach what you know (and you can do it at scale by writing). 16. Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead, look for writing projects that you never want to stop doing. 17. Occasionally your first idea is best, but usually it’s the fifth idea. You need to get all the obvious ideas out of the way. Try to surprise yourself. 18. Pay attention to what you pay attention to. 19. To be interesting just tell your own story with uncommon honesty. 20. Ironically, the best time to write a book is once you're done with the speaking tour for the book. 21. Read the books that your favorite authors once read. 22. When you find something you really enjoy, do it slowly. 23. The main reason to write something every day is that you must throw away a lot of good work to reach the great stuff. To let it all go easily you need to be convinced that there is “more where that came from.” You get that in steady production, which comes from a steady writing habit. 24. Habits are far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don't focus on becoming a better writer. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a writing session. 25. The quality of a piece of writing hinges on its structure. Nail the structure and the ideas will fall into place. You'll know the structure is good when the reader doesn't even notice it. 26. To write something good, just do it. To write something great, just redo it, redo it, redo it. The secret to publishing great writing is to spend a lot of time rewriting. 27. When in doubt, retreat to honesty. Say more of what you really think and feel instead of trying to sound smart. 28. Principles like what you see here are not laws. They're like a hat. If one doesn't fit, try another. Many of these maxims are directly from Kevin Kelly's book: Excellent Advice for Living, while others are from the interview I just published with him about his approach to writing. I've linked to our full conversation in the tweet below.

Kevin Kelly is one of the most influential tech writers of the last half-century. He's published 14 books, founded Wired magazine, and maybe even traveled to more places in Asia than anybody in human history. Here are 28 of his best maxims for writing: 1. Don't aim to be the best. Be the only. 2. Don’t create things to make money; make money so you can create things. 3. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. 4. Always demand a deadline. Doing so weeds out the superfluous and prevents you from insisting on perfection (which will limit you as a writer). 5. To write about something hard to explain, write a detailed letter to a friend about why it is so hard to explain, and then remove the initial “Dear Friend” part and you’ll have a great first draft. 6. The work on any worthy piece of writing is endless and infinite. Since you cannot limit the work, you must limit your hours. 7. Books are never finished, only abandoned. 8. When you are stuck, sleep on it. Give your subconscious an assignment while you sleep. You’ll have an answer in the morning or by the next time you sit down to write. 9. A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea. 10. The greatest teacher is called “doing.” 11. Efficiency is highly overrated; goofing off is highly underrated. 12. If you have a good idea, write it down. Don't assume you'll remember it. 13. Writing is not selfish; it's for the rest of us. If you don't do your thing and share your writing, you are cheating us. 14. Most articles and stories are improved significantly if you delete the first page of the manuscript. Start with the action. 15. The best way to learn anything is to teach what you know (and you can do it at scale by writing). 16. Productivity is often a distraction. Don't aim for better ways to get through your tasks as quickly as possible. Instead, look for writing projects that you never want to stop doing. 17. Occasionally your first idea is best, but usually it’s the fifth idea. You need to get all the obvious ideas out of the way. Try to surprise yourself. 18. Pay attention to what you pay attention to. 19. To be interesting just tell your own story with uncommon honesty. 20. Ironically, the best time to write a book is once you're done with the speaking tour for the book. 21. Read the books that your favorite authors once read. 22. When you find something you really enjoy, do it slowly. 23. The main reason to write something every day is that you must throw away a lot of good work to reach the great stuff. To let it all go easily you need to be convinced that there is “more where that came from.” You get that in steady production, which comes from a steady writing habit. 24. Habits are far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don't focus on becoming a better writer. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a writing session. 25. The quality of a piece of writing hinges on its structure. Nail the structure and the ideas will fall into place. You'll know the structure is good when the reader doesn't even notice it. 26. To write something good, just do it. To write something great, just redo it, redo it, redo it. The secret to publishing great writing is to spend a lot of time rewriting. 27. When in doubt, retreat to honesty. Say more of what you really think and feel instead of trying to sound smart. 28. Principles like what you see here are not laws. They're like a hat. If one doesn't fit, try another. Many of these maxims are directly from Kevin Kelly's book: Excellent Advice for Living, while others are from the interview I just published with him about his approach to writing. I've linked to our full conversation in the tweet below.

David Perell

370,509 views • 2 years ago

Howard Marks manages ~$190 billion and has penned some of the world's best investment writing. Warren Buffett loves his writing too: "When I see memos from Howard in my mail, they're the first thing I open." Here’s our conversation—with its top 13 insights: 1) For Howard Marks, heaven is seven little words: “I never thought of it that way.” Get the reader to say them and you win. 2) Einstein supposedly said there are four levels of intelligence: bright, brilliant, genius, and simple. Insecure writers try to flaunt their expertise with jargon; secure writers share what they know in surprising yet simple ways. 3) Something about putting words to paper freezes people up. Hence, Howard Marks tries to write as he speaks. Lesson: Take your written voice closer to your conversational voice. You’ll discover a new freshness and speed in your work. 4) Most writing rings hollow. No stories or thought-out principles inside. Howard Marks’ challenge to writers: Have experiences, cultivate convictions, and then your writing will come alive like never before. Thoreau said it best: “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” 5) Find your creed. What do you believe in? What do you think will work? What will not work? What are the rules that govern your decisions? People listen intently when you speak from a "principled voice." 6) Be eclectic in your subject matter and sources. Tackle the same point from different angles to create a richer reading experience. For example, in his memos, Howard Marks has explained investing via the prism of gambling, poker, sports, and more. 7) Howard Marks’ knack for analogies has made him one of Warren Buffett’s favorite writers. Takeaway: Come up with more surprising comparisons. Make cross-disciplinary connections. 8) What Howard admires in Buffett’s writing: its accessibility, folksy simplicity, and humor. A great example is Buffett’s description of the 2008 financial crash: “It's only when the tide goes out that we find out who's been swimming naked.” 9) Writing is anti-BS because the reader can keep re-reading until the hole in your logic becomes clear. You will get away with some BS in conversation, but if you want to discover and fix the holes in your ideas, write them down. 10) The old sayings don't get to be old sayings for nothing. A heuristic, story or book that has been around for long probably has something valuable to teach you. 11) The more complex the idea, the simpler your explanation must be. Nietzsche agrees with Howard Marks: “The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more you need to seduce the senses to it.” 12) The world is governed by cyclical forces. Even if history doesn't always repeat, it rhymes. This is why old books will teach you as much about the future as the past. 13) Writing prompt: Reconcile two things that seem to be at odds or show the hidden fault lines between two things that seem to be compatible. The reader will feel rewarded. She might even say the seven magical words: “I never thought of it that way.” I've shared the full conversation below. If you'd rather listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple, check out the replies below.

Howard Marks manages ~$190 billion and has penned some of the world's best investment writing. Warren Buffett loves his writing too: "When I see memos from Howard in my mail, they're the first thing I open." Here’s our conversation—with its top 13 insights: 1) For Howard Marks, heaven is seven little words: “I never thought of it that way.” Get the reader to say them and you win. 2) Einstein supposedly said there are four levels of intelligence: bright, brilliant, genius, and simple. Insecure writers try to flaunt their expertise with jargon; secure writers share what they know in surprising yet simple ways. 3) Something about putting words to paper freezes people up. Hence, Howard Marks tries to write as he speaks. Lesson: Take your written voice closer to your conversational voice. You’ll discover a new freshness and speed in your work. 4) Most writing rings hollow. No stories or thought-out principles inside. Howard Marks’ challenge to writers: Have experiences, cultivate convictions, and then your writing will come alive like never before. Thoreau said it best: “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” 5) Find your creed. What do you believe in? What do you think will work? What will not work? What are the rules that govern your decisions? People listen intently when you speak from a "principled voice." 6) Be eclectic in your subject matter and sources. Tackle the same point from different angles to create a richer reading experience. For example, in his memos, Howard Marks has explained investing via the prism of gambling, poker, sports, and more. 7) Howard Marks’ knack for analogies has made him one of Warren Buffett’s favorite writers. Takeaway: Come up with more surprising comparisons. Make cross-disciplinary connections. 8) What Howard admires in Buffett’s writing: its accessibility, folksy simplicity, and humor. A great example is Buffett’s description of the 2008 financial crash: “It's only when the tide goes out that we find out who's been swimming naked.” 9) Writing is anti-BS because the reader can keep re-reading until the hole in your logic becomes clear. You will get away with some BS in conversation, but if you want to discover and fix the holes in your ideas, write them down. 10) The old sayings don't get to be old sayings for nothing. A heuristic, story or book that has been around for long probably has something valuable to teach you. 11) The more complex the idea, the simpler your explanation must be. Nietzsche agrees with Howard Marks: “The more abstract the truth you wish to teach, the more you need to seduce the senses to it.” 12) The world is governed by cyclical forces. Even if history doesn't always repeat, it rhymes. This is why old books will teach you as much about the future as the past. 13) Writing prompt: Reconcile two things that seem to be at odds or show the hidden fault lines between two things that seem to be compatible. The reader will feel rewarded. She might even say the seven magical words: “I never thought of it that way.” I've shared the full conversation below. If you'd rather listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple, check out the replies below.

David Perell

255,352 views • 2 years ago

The Cultural Tutor grew to 1.6 million Twitter followers in less than two years of full-time writing. He insists that his unique writing style comes from his unique reading style. He avoids new books and basically doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years. The problem with new books isn't that they're bad. The problem is that everybody else is reading them, which doesn't give you much edge as a writer. In the words of The Cultural Tutor: "The simplest reason not to read something published in the last 50 years is because that's what everyone else is reading. The only books that most people read are books published in last, not even ... In the last six years, in the last two years. I'm not disparaging these authors. They've done incredibly well for themselves, and I have no doubt their books are filled with marvels and wonderful, wonderful things, but the rest of the world is reading them. And it's a simple fact of life that if you consume, you read what everyone else is reading, then the likelihood that you will write what they are writing, and worst of all, think what they are thinking increases. It's not certain, but if we all read the same books, we all think the same things."

The Cultural Tutor grew to 1.6 million Twitter followers in less than two years of full-time writing. He insists that his unique writing style comes from his unique reading style. He avoids new books and basically doesn't read anything published in the past 50 years. The problem with new books isn't that they're bad. The problem is that everybody else is reading them, which doesn't give you much edge as a writer. In the words of The Cultural Tutor: "The simplest reason not to read something published in the last 50 years is because that's what everyone else is reading. The only books that most people read are books published in last, not even ... In the last six years, in the last two years. I'm not disparaging these authors. They've done incredibly well for themselves, and I have no doubt their books are filled with marvels and wonderful, wonderful things, but the rest of the world is reading them. And it's a simple fact of life that if you consume, you read what everyone else is reading, then the likelihood that you will write what they are writing, and worst of all, think what they are thinking increases. It's not certain, but if we all read the same books, we all think the same things."

David Perell

96,667 views • 2 years ago

Why You Should Write 1) Putting words on paper freezes your thoughts, which gives your mind space to think deeper about a problem. 2) Writing lets you see if the epiphany you just had is brilliant or total bogus. 3) You want to attract smart people — because smart people read, and smart & successful people read the most. 4) For whatever field you're interested in, if you write about it well, the world's experts will reach out to you. 5) The higher you climb, the more likely you are to write frequently. Every serious executive I know is a voracious reader. Or, as former American president Harry Truman once said: “Not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers.” 6) Writing accelerates your learning. If you want to understand a topic better, start teaching it. The act of putting ideas into your own words tattoos them into your mind. James Clear once wrote: "If you think you can learn a lot by reading a book, try writing one." 7) The investor Howard Marks once said to me: "In writing, as opposed to speaking, you can't BS. You can't BS in writing because the reader can easily go back and check your work. The logic has to be established. The explanation needs to be clear." 8) It frees up processing space: Mathematicians put their ideas on the whiteboard because jotting down their ideas lets them tackle harder problems. Writing is the same. By putting ideas onto the page, you can transcend the limits of scattered thinking and tackle more challenging problems.

Why You Should Write 1) Putting words on paper freezes your thoughts, which gives your mind space to think deeper about a problem. 2) Writing lets you see if the epiphany you just had is brilliant or total bogus. 3) You want to attract smart people — because smart people read, and smart & successful people read the most. 4) For whatever field you're interested in, if you write about it well, the world's experts will reach out to you. 5) The higher you climb, the more likely you are to write frequently. Every serious executive I know is a voracious reader. Or, as former American president Harry Truman once said: “Not all readers are leaders but all leaders are readers.” 6) Writing accelerates your learning. If you want to understand a topic better, start teaching it. The act of putting ideas into your own words tattoos them into your mind. James Clear once wrote: "If you think you can learn a lot by reading a book, try writing one." 7) The investor Howard Marks once said to me: "In writing, as opposed to speaking, you can't BS. You can't BS in writing because the reader can easily go back and check your work. The logic has to be established. The explanation needs to be clear." 8) It frees up processing space: Mathematicians put their ideas on the whiteboard because jotting down their ideas lets them tackle harder problems. Writing is the same. By putting ideas onto the page, you can transcend the limits of scattered thinking and tackle more challenging problems.

David Perell

99,861 views • 2 years ago

Nesara/Gesara and The New World Times are changing and we are all going through our own Awakening whilst learning so much about ourselves and the world we live in Nesara/Gersara is a phrase that has been thrown around by many people with lots of promises of what we have awaiting us. It has been a big topic of conversation over the last few years, which I feel has a big lack of understanding to what it is. Many of the people who have pushed this information are Gatekeepers and deceivers and they have been doing all they can to stop people finding out the real truth of what is really going on in the world In this video I share a really powerful section from one of my favourite books Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch. When we truly understand the matrix and systems we are all currently living in, we can start to appreciate how the world will differ when we expose and remove them, which is what is happening now This will then bring more clarity and a better vision to how we view Nesara/Gesara which can provide us a whole new meaning Remember The New World, is without Crime, Evil and Corruption, a completely new reality, so books like this help us start to see what life will be like for us all. I invite you to listen to these words to really feel what is being said. This is one of my favourite books and one I will regularly listen to. See what comes up for you, I would love for you to share your comments I will be doing a series of videos like this, sharing the words and perspectives from others who speak the word of God

Nesara/Gesara and The New World Times are changing and we are all going through our own Awakening whilst learning so much about ourselves and the world we live in Nesara/Gersara is a phrase that has been thrown around by many people with lots of promises of what we have awaiting us. It has been a big topic of conversation over the last few years, which I feel has a big lack of understanding to what it is. Many of the people who have pushed this information are Gatekeepers and deceivers and they have been doing all they can to stop people finding out the real truth of what is really going on in the world In this video I share a really powerful section from one of my favourite books Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch. When we truly understand the matrix and systems we are all currently living in, we can start to appreciate how the world will differ when we expose and remove them, which is what is happening now This will then bring more clarity and a better vision to how we view Nesara/Gesara which can provide us a whole new meaning Remember The New World, is without Crime, Evil and Corruption, a completely new reality, so books like this help us start to see what life will be like for us all. I invite you to listen to these words to really feel what is being said. This is one of my favourite books and one I will regularly listen to. See what comes up for you, I would love for you to share your comments I will be doing a series of videos like this, sharing the words and perspectives from others who speak the word of God

Harry The Soul Coach

16,186 views • 2 months ago

"The simplest reason to not read something published in the past 50 years is that's what everybody else is reading. The only books that most people read are books published in the last two years. And it's a simple fact of life that if you read what everybody else is reading, then the likelihood that you will write what they are writing and worst of all think what they are thinking is, let's say... increased." (From my interview with The Cultural Tutor)

"The simplest reason to not read something published in the past 50 years is that's what everybody else is reading. The only books that most people read are books published in the last two years. And it's a simple fact of life that if you read what everybody else is reading, then the likelihood that you will write what they are writing and worst of all think what they are thinking is, let's say... increased." (From my interview with The Cultural Tutor)

David Perell

184,088 views • 2 years ago

$Morgan Housel is one of the world's best storytellers. He's sold almost 10 million books, and this episode is chock full of lessons he's learned about how to write well. Some highlights: 1. Get to the point. Just get to the point. 2. The person with the best story wins. Simple as that. 3. Nobody likes a lecture. Nobody likes to be shamed about their mistakes. But if you give them enough stories about psychology, they'll figure it out for themselves. 4. Storytelling was a survival strategy for Morgan. Telling people what the Dow Jones did this morning isn't a viable career strategy. If you're not telling stories, you're out. You're gone. 5. Whenever you're telling a story, any time you can show the reader how they're reading about themselves (as much as somebody else), you have a much higher chance of hooking them in. 6. It's rare to find a great writer who works for a publication because creativity can't be scheduled. It's hard to write well when you have to go to an office, sit in a cubicle, dress up in corporate attire, and listen to your editor say: "Now, be creative." 7. Good ideas come from independent and unstructured writing time because that's when you actually get good thinking done. 8. A mantra for reading: "Wide funnel, tight filter." Start a lot of books, but don't force yourself to finish them. 9. Delete the parts that a reader would skip. 10. It's important to write concisely — but concise does not mean short. 11. You don't need to write something new. You just need to write it better. 12. One of the interesting things about reading is that you never know which chapters flowed out of the author's brain and which sentences took a month of agony to get right. 13. Your best ideas tend to be the easiest ones to write. 14. Good writers spend a fraction of their time writing, and most of their time reading and thinking. I've shared the full conversation with Morgan Housel below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.$

Morgan Housel is one of the world's best storytellers. He's sold almost 10 million books, and this episode is chock full of lessons he's learned about how to write well. Some highlights: 1. Get to the point. Just get to the point. 2. The person with the best story wins. Simple as that. 3. Nobody likes a lecture. Nobody likes to be shamed about their mistakes. But if you give them enough stories about psychology, they'll figure it out for themselves. 4. Storytelling was a survival strategy for Morgan. Telling people what the Dow Jones did this morning isn't a viable career strategy. If you're not telling stories, you're out. You're gone. 5. Whenever you're telling a story, any time you can show the reader how they're reading about themselves (as much as somebody else), you have a much higher chance of hooking them in. 6. It's rare to find a great writer who works for a publication because creativity can't be scheduled. It's hard to write well when you have to go to an office, sit in a cubicle, dress up in corporate attire, and listen to your editor say: "Now, be creative." 7. Good ideas come from independent and unstructured writing time because that's when you actually get good thinking done. 8. A mantra for reading: "Wide funnel, tight filter." Start a lot of books, but don't force yourself to finish them. 9. Delete the parts that a reader would skip. 10. It's important to write concisely — but concise does not mean short. 11. You don't need to write something new. You just need to write it better. 12. One of the interesting things about reading is that you never know which chapters flowed out of the author's brain and which sentences took a month of agony to get right. 13. Your best ideas tend to be the easiest ones to write. 14. Good writers spend a fraction of their time writing, and most of their time reading and thinking. I've shared the full conversation with Morgan Housel below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

67,692 views • 9 months ago

$Is writing quality subjective or objective? Of course, taste is personal and writers hate rules, but the more you read, the more you see the same patterns everywhere. Michael Dean has scored 100s of essays on 27 different metrics. He says we can use AI not to automate writing, but to elevate it. Here’s what we talked about: 1) You can’t develop good taste without knowing the fundamentals of your genre. These 27 patterns across all essays are not rules, but questions. Once you understand the constraints, you can break them creatively. 2) The best way to get good at writing is to change how you read. Don’t just read for content. Highlight the parts that resonate, and then deconstruct the voice and structure. 3) Storytelling is about stretching the unknown across time. 4) Great titles do triple duty: they create mystery, distill your thesis, and use phonetics that roll off the tongue. 'Pride and Prejudice' succeeds on all counts, while 'English Aristocracy' falls flat. 5) Get feedback by asking readers what they love and hate. Everyone knows to rework the parts people hate, but don't forget about the other invisible enemy: boredom. Beware of the parts people are indifferent to. Forgettable sections are the enemy of good writing, and no reaction is a bad reaction. 6) The ultimate goal of writing advice is to forget it. Good practice brings you fluency. People romanticize the Grateful Dead as an emblem of free-spirited intuition, but nobody talks about their insane work ethic. Young Jerry Garcia practiced banjo scales for 10 hours a day. Phil Lesh studied classical music theory for trumpet. They kicked out Bob Weir for not being rigorous enough and he had to work his way back into the band. By going into your head, you can get out of your head. 7) A good hook is a fractal. A hook isn’t just a clever way to intrigue a reader, it should capture the core dilemma of your essay. Understand the questions your writing answers, and then bake those questions into the subtext of your opening. 8) Personal writing involves the biographical details of your life. Could somebody put their name on your essay and get away with it? If so, you’re not on the page. 9) Personal writing has 3 criteria: biography (what happened), interiority (what you thought), and outlook (what you believe). It’s not about pushing these to their extremes, but having them work together to support your main idea. 10) To find your voice, change your arena. The way we shape language is linked to our environment. You’ll speak differently to a 5,000-person audience than to your five best friends. You’re more likely to experiment when the stakes and visibility are low. Consider an unlisted page on your website. Or consider a pseudonym (Fernando Pessoa had 75 of them). 11) Write about less: A student once asked Umberto Eco for advice about how to write a thesis. He wanted to write about all the volcanoes in the world. Eco told him to narrow it down. How about all the active volcanoes in the world? Nope, there are 48 of them. Get more specific. “Okay, how about the Popocatépetl Volcano in Mexico?” Okay, that works. Pick one volcano and focus on that. 12) We should prepare for AI to get better than we can imagine. If AI gets “extraterrestrially good,” becomes hyper relevant, and can replicate us to uncanny degrees—will you still write your own sentences? If the answer is yes, you don’t need to panic every time a new model comes out. By imagining the extremes, it helps you understand the timeless parts of the practice. 13) AI's ability to help you write is constrained by how much information you give it. Michael says: “The more you write, the more personal and aligned the replica can be.” 14) Write your first draft for yourself, and write your second draft for your reader. 15) Paragraphs are the atomic unit of composition. We are traumatized by The Five Paragraph Essay and need better heuristics. Each paragraph can start with a frame to hook the reader and end with a reward. Do it over and over again, and you'll get a Reader's Trance. 16) By learning to write essays, you become a Writing Generalist. Most genres specialize, but the essay is a medium of fusion. It combines the soul of a memoirist, the rigor of a philosopher, the pen of a poet, the persuasion of a marketer, the research of a journalist, and the creativity of a novelist. I've shared the full conversation with Michael Dean below. Of course, you can watch it here, but if you'd like to watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, I've shared those links below.$

Is writing quality subjective or objective? Of course, taste is personal and writers hate rules, but the more you read, the more you see the same patterns everywhere. Michael Dean has scored 100s of essays on 27 different metrics. He says we can use AI not to automate writing, but to elevate it. Here’s what we talked about: 1) You can’t develop good taste without knowing the fundamentals of your genre. These 27 patterns across all essays are not rules, but questions. Once you understand the constraints, you can break them creatively. 2) The best way to get good at writing is to change how you read. Don’t just read for content. Highlight the parts that resonate, and then deconstruct the voice and structure. 3) Storytelling is about stretching the unknown across time. 4) Great titles do triple duty: they create mystery, distill your thesis, and use phonetics that roll off the tongue. 'Pride and Prejudice' succeeds on all counts, while 'English Aristocracy' falls flat. 5) Get feedback by asking readers what they love and hate. Everyone knows to rework the parts people hate, but don't forget about the other invisible enemy: boredom. Beware of the parts people are indifferent to. Forgettable sections are the enemy of good writing, and no reaction is a bad reaction. 6) The ultimate goal of writing advice is to forget it. Good practice brings you fluency. People romanticize the Grateful Dead as an emblem of free-spirited intuition, but nobody talks about their insane work ethic. Young Jerry Garcia practiced banjo scales for 10 hours a day. Phil Lesh studied classical music theory for trumpet. They kicked out Bob Weir for not being rigorous enough and he had to work his way back into the band. By going into your head, you can get out of your head. 7) A good hook is a fractal. A hook isn’t just a clever way to intrigue a reader, it should capture the core dilemma of your essay. Understand the questions your writing answers, and then bake those questions into the subtext of your opening. 8) Personal writing involves the biographical details of your life. Could somebody put their name on your essay and get away with it? If so, you’re not on the page. 9) Personal writing has 3 criteria: biography (what happened), interiority (what you thought), and outlook (what you believe). It’s not about pushing these to their extremes, but having them work together to support your main idea. 10) To find your voice, change your arena. The way we shape language is linked to our environment. You’ll speak differently to a 5,000-person audience than to your five best friends. You’re more likely to experiment when the stakes and visibility are low. Consider an unlisted page on your website. Or consider a pseudonym (Fernando Pessoa had 75 of them). 11) Write about less: A student once asked Umberto Eco for advice about how to write a thesis. He wanted to write about all the volcanoes in the world. Eco told him to narrow it down. How about all the active volcanoes in the world? Nope, there are 48 of them. Get more specific. “Okay, how about the Popocatépetl Volcano in Mexico?” Okay, that works. Pick one volcano and focus on that. 12) We should prepare for AI to get better than we can imagine. If AI gets “extraterrestrially good,” becomes hyper relevant, and can replicate us to uncanny degrees—will you still write your own sentences? If the answer is yes, you don’t need to panic every time a new model comes out. By imagining the extremes, it helps you understand the timeless parts of the practice. 13) AI's ability to help you write is constrained by how much information you give it. Michael says: “The more you write, the more personal and aligned the replica can be.” 14) Write your first draft for yourself, and write your second draft for your reader. 15) Paragraphs are the atomic unit of composition. We are traumatized by The Five Paragraph Essay and need better heuristics. Each paragraph can start with a frame to hook the reader and end with a reward. Do it over and over again, and you'll get a Reader's Trance. 16) By learning to write essays, you become a Writing Generalist. Most genres specialize, but the essay is a medium of fusion. It combines the soul of a memoirist, the rigor of a philosopher, the pen of a poet, the persuasion of a marketer, the research of a journalist, and the creativity of a novelist. I've shared the full conversation with Michael Dean below. Of course, you can watch it here, but if you'd like to watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify, I've shared those links below.

David Perell

90,841 views • 1 year ago

"You can either produce excellence or you can avoid criticism. But you cannot do both of those. The reason that you don't have certain excellence that you want is because you are afraid of getting criticized. You are afraid of the judgment that comes with it. You are afraid of standing out. You are afraid of being alone. You are afraid of people looking at you. You are worried about what people think of you. There are 2 categories of things in this world: 1) Things that are up to you 2) Things that are not up to you Which category does your reputation sit in? Your reputation is not up to you. I'm the one who associates your reputation with something, not you. You just do things. What's up to you? How you act. Your decisions. Your actions. That is up to you. Your reputation is not up to you. Here's how I know that: You all have a reputation about me and it's not in my control. I get to say and do whatever I say and do up here. I am in control of saying it. I am in control of doing it. The moment words leave my lips, who has control over what is done with those words? You! You are in control of what you think of me. And there's no way everybody in this room is going to think the exact same thing about me. No way. When it comes to exceptional, what we've got to understand is you can spend your whole life trying to avoid criticism and earn reputation, and it still won't be in your control. We can waste a lot of time missing out on excellence we could have been producing if we were just simply LESS trying to engineer what we wanted other people to think about us."

"You can either produce excellence or you can avoid criticism. But you cannot do both of those. The reason that you don't have certain excellence that you want is because you are afraid of getting criticized. You are afraid of the judgment that comes with it. You are afraid of standing out. You are afraid of being alone. You are afraid of people looking at you. You are worried about what people think of you. There are 2 categories of things in this world: 1) Things that are up to you 2) Things that are not up to you Which category does your reputation sit in? Your reputation is not up to you. I'm the one who associates your reputation with something, not you. You just do things. What's up to you? How you act. Your decisions. Your actions. That is up to you. Your reputation is not up to you. Here's how I know that: You all have a reputation about me and it's not in my control. I get to say and do whatever I say and do up here. I am in control of saying it. I am in control of doing it. The moment words leave my lips, who has control over what is done with those words? You! You are in control of what you think of me. And there's no way everybody in this room is going to think the exact same thing about me. No way. When it comes to exceptional, what we've got to understand is you can spend your whole life trying to avoid criticism and earn reputation, and it still won't be in your control. We can waste a lot of time missing out on excellence we could have been producing if we were just simply LESS trying to engineer what we wanted other people to think about us."

Brian Kight

308,812 views • 1 year ago