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Wright Thompson on three kinds of writing: 1) Documentaries: The best writing for documentaries is no writing at all. If you're writing, you've failed. Because it's just sound. Every time you do a voiceover in a documentary, it's because you couldn't figure out how to do it without one.... show more

David Perell Clips

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David Baldacci has sold 200 million books. His secret? Long books, no wasted words. "I've gotten to the point in my career now, if I used to write it in 100 words, I'd do my very best to write it in 10. Because the 100 is just lazy writing." "If the word is imprinted on that page in one of my books, it's there for a reason." "You can skim my books at your peril, because you're gonna miss stuff that you need to know."

David Baldacci has sold 200 million books. His secret? Long books, no wasted words. "I've gotten to the point in my career now, if I used to write it in 100 words, I'd do my very best to write it in 10. Because the 100 is just lazy writing." "If the word is imprinted on that page in one of my books, it's there for a reason." "You can skim my books at your peril, because you're gonna miss stuff that you need to know."

How I Write Clips

11,170 views • 13 days 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

552,604 views • 3 months ago

How do you write 10+ years of content with 50,000 characters? Not to mention everything written and depicted before this all started I don't care how good you are at writing scripts, no human is doing that much writing in a million lifetimes. It's so weird.

How do you write 10+ years of content with 50,000 characters? Not to mention everything written and depicted before this all started I don't care how good you are at writing scripts, no human is doing that much writing in a million lifetimes. It's so weird.

Invisidon

30,350 views • 9 months ago

Morgan Housel will never use AI to write. To him, it defeats the whole purpose of writing. "The process of writing is what gets the author thinking. When they write a book, they didn't have all that knowledge in their head. They started out with one brave sentence, and then that taught them something. If you're using any kind of LLM to do any of the broad structure for you, you're not actually thinking. You stripped out everything that was good about writing." He'll use it for research, as a "Google on steroids." But even then he argues that the research process is different: "When you're doing the reps of research, it's gonna hit you in a different way."

Morgan Housel will never use AI to write. To him, it defeats the whole purpose of writing. "The process of writing is what gets the author thinking. When they write a book, they didn't have all that knowledge in their head. They started out with one brave sentence, and then that taught them something. If you're using any kind of LLM to do any of the broad structure for you, you're not actually thinking. You stripped out everything that was good about writing." He'll use it for research, as a "Google on steroids." But even then he argues that the research process is different: "When you're doing the reps of research, it's gonna hit you in a different way."

David Perell Clips

13,721 views • 1 month ago

Fareed Zakaria is one of the world's leading journalists. Maybe you've seen him on CNN. Maybe you've read his books. Or maybe you've read his articles in the Washington Post. This conversation is a university-level seminar in the craft of writing, which builds upon the thousands of articles Fareed's written over his career. It's a guidepost for anybody who wants to write non-fiction. How do you develop expertise? How should you structure your days? What kinds of deadlines should you set? We also talked about how The Great Gatsby shaped his perspective on America, when to rely on anecdotes vs. data, and the skills that'll remain scarce as AI breaks through the Turing Test and becomes a hyper-competent writer. The through-line of Fareed's work is a philosophy of purposeful practice: watching all his TV performances to see how he can improve, reading great writing to absorb what excellence looks like, and using the deadlines of TV and newspaper columns to write consistently. Timestamps: 2:50 Building a writing routine 6:57 Does Fareed use AI? 11:07 The skill AI can't replicate 12:23 What makes for a good take? 14:10 Writing for TV vs. newspapers 22:18 Fareed's writing routine 31:34 Lessons from reading fiction 39:30 Building a unique point of view 59:33 Rapid fire: books, articles + TV 1:05:26 Fareed's best writing lessons I've shared the full conversation with Fareed Zakaria below. If you'd rather watch the full episode on YouTube or listen to the episode on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets. Enjoy!

Fareed Zakaria is one of the world's leading journalists. Maybe you've seen him on CNN. Maybe you've read his books. Or maybe you've read his articles in the Washington Post. This conversation is a university-level seminar in the craft of writing, which builds upon the thousands of articles Fareed's written over his career. It's a guidepost for anybody who wants to write non-fiction. How do you develop expertise? How should you structure your days? What kinds of deadlines should you set? We also talked about how The Great Gatsby shaped his perspective on America, when to rely on anecdotes vs. data, and the skills that'll remain scarce as AI breaks through the Turing Test and becomes a hyper-competent writer. The through-line of Fareed's work is a philosophy of purposeful practice: watching all his TV performances to see how he can improve, reading great writing to absorb what excellence looks like, and using the deadlines of TV and newspaper columns to write consistently. Timestamps: 2:50 Building a writing routine 6:57 Does Fareed use AI? 11:07 The skill AI can't replicate 12:23 What makes for a good take? 14:10 Writing for TV vs. newspapers 22:18 Fareed's writing routine 31:34 Lessons from reading fiction 39:30 Building a unique point of view 59:33 Rapid fire: books, articles + TV 1:05:26 Fareed's best writing lessons I've shared the full conversation with Fareed Zakaria below. If you'd rather watch the full episode on YouTube or listen to the episode on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets. Enjoy!

David Perell

191,503 views • 6 months ago

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

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

"Do you ever wonder why... every mainstream narrative sounds the same, no matter what country you're in?" "This is a co-ordinated script... It's time to stop, look around and ask yourself: Who's writing it, and why are we still following it?"

"Do you ever wonder why... every mainstream narrative sounds the same, no matter what country you're in?" "This is a co-ordinated script... It's time to stop, look around and ask yourself: Who's writing it, and why are we still following it?"

Wide Awake Media

36,040 views • 1 year ago

Lee Child is the man behind the Jack Reacher series. He's sold more than 200 million books, and two of his books were adapted into movies starring Tom Cruise. How popular are his books? In the UK, his series has sold more copies than J.K Rowling did with Harry Potter on Amazon. So at this point, you basically can't talk about contemporary crime and thriller books without talking about Lee Child. This interview is all about how he wrote that Jack Reacher series. To the best of my knowledge, it's the deepest interview he's ever done about his writing process. Timestamps: 0:30 Writing stories in America 7:26 You don't need an outline 12:50 Writing one book per year 17:57 Why the 60s were so creative 18:56 The business of writing 23:05 The key to page-turner books 38:25 How to write good dialogue 43:15 Where to start / end a book 52:18 Writing a violent scene 56:56 Using clothes to reveal character 1:00:43 Why the UK has so many good writers I've shared the full conversation below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the links in the first reply tweet. Enjoy!

Lee Child is the man behind the Jack Reacher series. He's sold more than 200 million books, and two of his books were adapted into movies starring Tom Cruise. How popular are his books? In the UK, his series has sold more copies than J.K Rowling did with Harry Potter on Amazon. So at this point, you basically can't talk about contemporary crime and thriller books without talking about Lee Child. This interview is all about how he wrote that Jack Reacher series. To the best of my knowledge, it's the deepest interview he's ever done about his writing process. Timestamps: 0:30 Writing stories in America 7:26 You don't need an outline 12:50 Writing one book per year 17:57 Why the 60s were so creative 18:56 The business of writing 23:05 The key to page-turner books 38:25 How to write good dialogue 43:15 Where to start / end a book 52:18 Writing a violent scene 56:56 Using clothes to reveal character 1:00:43 Why the UK has so many good writers I've shared the full conversation below. If you'd rather watch on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the links in the first reply tweet. Enjoy!

David Perell

441,342 views • 5 months ago

"Technical writing completely changed my life." - Thariq In less than 2 years, Thariq (Anthropic) cracked the code on writing technical articles that consistently pass 1M+ views. In this 15-min workshop, he breaks down: → his exact writing workflow → tactics behind articles that go viral → how he leverages AI to write faster (without losing his voice) → why technical writing is the most underrated way to drive mindshare Technical writing is one of the most powerful (and completely free) ways to gain views, build authority, and teach the world what you know. This is the 4th [Technical] Write & Learn, a curated workshop series cohosted with swyx and Kernel Labs.

"Technical writing completely changed my life." - Thariq In less than 2 years, Thariq (Anthropic) cracked the code on writing technical articles that consistently pass 1M+ views. In this 15-min workshop, he breaks down: → his exact writing workflow → tactics behind articles that go viral → how he leverages AI to write faster (without losing his voice) → why technical writing is the most underrated way to drive mindshare Technical writing is one of the most powerful (and completely free) ways to gain views, build authority, and teach the world what you know. This is the 4th [Technical] Write & Learn, a curated workshop series cohosted with swyx and Kernel Labs.

Sarah Chieng

264,259 views • 2 months ago

What if you built a company to maximize deep work? That's what Sam Corcos did. He hasn't regularly checked the news since 2013 and his business is worth $300 million. 12 lessons on writing from the founder and CEO of Levels: 1. The average tech worker can't go more than six minutes without checking Slack. No wonder people struggle to write. 2. Evergreen tip for getting people to actually read your work: add value to the internet. 3. Collaboration is overrated. Smart people thinking deeply about something for a long time, and recording the conclusions via writing, is underrated. 4. Sam did an experiment where he stopped reading the news for a month. He took the time he used to spend reading the news and started reading books instead — he finished eight books that month. 5. Writing solves disagreements. If you don’t pin down your thoughts on paper, you can “discuss” forever without ever reaching clarity. But the conversation becomes much more productive once the goals, methods, and main assumptions are written down. 6. Just about everybody could benefit from more intentional, deep, strategic thought. Writing is how you unlock this mode. 7. Remote work fails without a few great writers on the team. Internal company communication will spiral into a game of telephone without good communicators. 8. Specific feedback is better delivered via writing while general comments are best shared over Loom (because the recipient can feel your vibe.) Pick the right medium; the wrong one will botch your message. 9. A writing culture is protection against the tyranny of the loudest voice. It gives space for quieter people with insight to speak up. 10. You’ll never be able to reflect and write, unless you intentionally carve out the time. “Things” will always turn up. Create non-negotiable writing hours and protect them. 11. Sam does one Think Week every quarter where he disconnects from his work to write deep strategy memos. 12. You need to detach from the hive mind before creative ideas turn up (and it is often via writing that the flimsy premises of the hive mind become obvious.) I've shared the full conversation with Sam Corcos below. This one's a little different from most How I Write episodes because we went so deep on a single topic: business writing. If you'd rather listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

What if you built a company to maximize deep work? That's what Sam Corcos did. He hasn't regularly checked the news since 2013 and his business is worth $300 million. 12 lessons on writing from the founder and CEO of Levels: 1. The average tech worker can't go more than six minutes without checking Slack. No wonder people struggle to write. 2. Evergreen tip for getting people to actually read your work: add value to the internet. 3. Collaboration is overrated. Smart people thinking deeply about something for a long time, and recording the conclusions via writing, is underrated. 4. Sam did an experiment where he stopped reading the news for a month. He took the time he used to spend reading the news and started reading books instead — he finished eight books that month. 5. Writing solves disagreements. If you don’t pin down your thoughts on paper, you can “discuss” forever without ever reaching clarity. But the conversation becomes much more productive once the goals, methods, and main assumptions are written down. 6. Just about everybody could benefit from more intentional, deep, strategic thought. Writing is how you unlock this mode. 7. Remote work fails without a few great writers on the team. Internal company communication will spiral into a game of telephone without good communicators. 8. Specific feedback is better delivered via writing while general comments are best shared over Loom (because the recipient can feel your vibe.) Pick the right medium; the wrong one will botch your message. 9. A writing culture is protection against the tyranny of the loudest voice. It gives space for quieter people with insight to speak up. 10. You’ll never be able to reflect and write, unless you intentionally carve out the time. “Things” will always turn up. Create non-negotiable writing hours and protect them. 11. Sam does one Think Week every quarter where he disconnects from his work to write deep strategy memos. 12. You need to detach from the hive mind before creative ideas turn up (and it is often via writing that the flimsy premises of the hive mind become obvious.) I've shared the full conversation with Sam Corcos below. This one's a little different from most How I Write episodes because we went so deep on a single topic: business writing. If you'd rather listen on Apple or Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

42,993 views • 2 years ago

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the best fantasy & science fiction writers alive today. What's crazy is that he's kept quality so high while writing ~5 books per year, and this interview is about how he does it. One guy on Reddit said: “Probably the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy author interview I’ve ever seen. Gives great insight into how Adrian Tchaikovsky approaches his novels." Timestamps: 0:35 How to plan a novel 2:27 The two types of outlining 7:07 What makes for a good idea? 8:09 Dragons 14:07 Building good characters 20:02 World building 25:09 A guide to science fiction 33:46 Fantasy vs. science fiction 36:38 How magic works in Sci-Fi 42:04 Writing good fight scenes 50:15 Avoiding writing ruts 59:07 How to improve your writing 1:03:07 Writing a good ending I've shared the full conversation with Adrian Tchaikovsky below. If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the best fantasy & science fiction writers alive today. What's crazy is that he's kept quality so high while writing ~5 books per year, and this interview is about how he does it. One guy on Reddit said: “Probably the best Sci-Fi/Fantasy author interview I’ve ever seen. Gives great insight into how Adrian Tchaikovsky approaches his novels." Timestamps: 0:35 How to plan a novel 2:27 The two types of outlining 7:07 What makes for a good idea? 8:09 Dragons 14:07 Building good characters 20:02 World building 25:09 A guide to science fiction 33:46 Fantasy vs. science fiction 36:38 How magic works in Sci-Fi 42:04 Writing good fight scenes 50:15 Avoiding writing ruts 59:07 How to improve your writing 1:03:07 Writing a good ending I've shared the full conversation with Adrian Tchaikovsky below. If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, or listen on Apple / Spotify, check out the reply tweets.

David Perell

152,145 views • 6 months 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

Dan Wang is one of the world’s top China analysts. He built his name by writing annual letters about China that are as well-written as they are insightful. What’s unique about his writing is the way he goes beyond cliches, especially in the way he thinks about the relationship between China and America. How does he do it? For Dan, good writing is the byproduct of lots of eating, lots of travel, and lots of talking to people, and he broke it all down in this episode. Timestamps: 1:04 Why Dan writes Annual Letters 15:01 Dan’s way of writing 26:02 Why most travel writing stinks 30:44 How to travel through China 33:05 The regions of China, explained 44:47 Trade books vs. academic books 53:46 The problem with history books 01:01:42 Did Dan write his book with AI? 01:10:50 Dan’s least favorite part about China 1:15:42 A critique of American elites 1:33:08 Why Dan’s site got blocked in China 1:39:52 What China mocks about America 1:54:49 A simple way to improve your writing Dan and I also want to dedicate this episode to Tyler Cowen as a thank you for his friendship and mentorship over the years. I’ve shared the full episode with Dan Wang on Twitter below. If you’d like to watch it elsewhere, you can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple / Spotify, and I’ve linked to all those things below.

Dan Wang is one of the world’s top China analysts. He built his name by writing annual letters about China that are as well-written as they are insightful. What’s unique about his writing is the way he goes beyond cliches, especially in the way he thinks about the relationship between China and America. How does he do it? For Dan, good writing is the byproduct of lots of eating, lots of travel, and lots of talking to people, and he broke it all down in this episode. Timestamps: 1:04 Why Dan writes Annual Letters 15:01 Dan’s way of writing 26:02 Why most travel writing stinks 30:44 How to travel through China 33:05 The regions of China, explained 44:47 Trade books vs. academic books 53:46 The problem with history books 01:01:42 Did Dan write his book with AI? 01:10:50 Dan’s least favorite part about China 1:15:42 A critique of American elites 1:33:08 Why Dan’s site got blocked in China 1:39:52 What China mocks about America 1:54:49 A simple way to improve your writing Dan and I also want to dedicate this episode to Tyler Cowen as a thank you for his friendship and mentorship over the years. I’ve shared the full episode with Dan Wang on Twitter below. If you’d like to watch it elsewhere, you can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple / Spotify, and I’ve linked to all those things below.

David Perell

153,074 views • 10 months 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

On a previous #TeawithGaryVee I was asked "I'm 17 years old and my dream is to be a screen writer, should I pursue a more viable career that would make more money and do writing on the side or just go all in on writing?" If you have a question for me, drop it here so my team can add it to the next Rapid Fire Q&A and follow me on

On a previous #TeawithGaryVee I was asked "I'm 17 years old and my dream is to be a screen writer, should I pursue a more viable career that would make more money and do writing on the side or just go all in on writing?" If you have a question for me, drop it here so my team can add it to the next Rapid Fire Q&A and follow me on

Gary Vaynerchuk

11,967 views • 10 months 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

🇺🇸 Tucker lays out the deepest critique of AI yet, and it's not about jobs... His argument: writing produces thinking. You can't formulate a thought without first articulating it. If kids never write because AI writes for them, the quality of human thinking collapses. That's the surface problem. The deeper one is purpose: "The point of living is to create. That's the point of being a human being. It's necessary for joy. There is no joy without creation." If the machine creates everything and humans just consume, you don't get utopia. You get despair, mass unemployment, and eventually political revolution.

🇺🇸 Tucker lays out the deepest critique of AI yet, and it's not about jobs... His argument: writing produces thinking. You can't formulate a thought without first articulating it. If kids never write because AI writes for them, the quality of human thinking collapses. That's the surface problem. The deeper one is purpose: "The point of living is to create. That's the point of being a human being. It's necessary for joy. There is no joy without creation." If the machine creates everything and humans just consume, you don't get utopia. You get despair, mass unemployment, and eventually political revolution.

Mario Nawfal

2,547,038 views • 2 months ago