How to Write More

The way I write more is by doing it every day. I write first thing in the morning (journaling and note taking) and publishing my notes (like this one). For work, I write product briefs to clarify the situation, my interpretation of the facts, and what we should do about it. I write memos for the team for anything important. I write investor updates. I do it without thinking—even when drafting a tricky email I’ll write it out to understand what I’m trying to do.

Taking an interest in good writing helps. Being curious about what makes for good communication, reading about writing, and trying out new things to try and communicate more clearly. To cultivate that, I recommend The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto which is the best business writing book and reading about knowledge creation with The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch.

Using tools you enjoy gives something to look forward to while building up a writing habit. For example, a fountain pen, a nice notebook, a mechanical keyboard, beautifying your favorite text editor, or generally improving the ‘hand feel’.

See also:

• Atomic Habits is a useful book to read when starting new habits including writing more
• Building a note-taking habit

Links to this note

• Getting Ready for AI

  The other day I noticed a tweet from Justin Duke which outlined a plan to get his company’s codebase ready for Devin—a programming focused generative AI product. While many are skeptical about AI taking over coding tasks, progress happening quickly and it seems likely that these tools will help software engineers, though maybe not replace the job outright).

• There Is an Iceberg of Content Within Organizations

  There is so much writing that goes into running modern organizations but very little of it is ever seen. Every email, chat, document, slides, spreadsheets that gets produced is limited in distribution to a handful of people or teams. What you can observe from the outside is only the most polished published content.

• Principles for Living a Rich Digital Life

  I’ve been thinking more about how to live a rich digital life and what that means in a world of abundance. The following is a work-in-progress list of principles that are starting to form. (Epistemic status: low).