On Writing
Writing
is
The act of clarifying and generating thought.
Of choosing between many possibilities.
The act of speaking reality into existence,
to orchestrate attention.
Telepathy.
Moving.
Powerful.
Persuasive.
An asymmetric bet, expanding surface area for luck.
Art.
Magic.
It is one thing to write to describe in detail, the colors of a picturesque scene and the emotions that resonates.
One that will never be seen again,
But for that moment.
It is another to write for a cause, to influence, to move, to persuade.
Like when the many times that try men’s souls.
That is when it is most needed.
It becomes more important now.
Maybe the biggest moat and skill that compounds.
When AI can write in a day many more times than humans have written since the first word was written.
But it doesn’t give it meaning, unique experience, and intention.
And when something is abundant, like air, people take it for granted.
Unless it is consciously moulded and put to use.
Like a cup, the value of it is the container, the gap - what it can hold.
The word is the code of our civilisation.
The operating system of the new age.
How great companies are built.
And by mastering it we can transfer it to re-writing our civilisation.
It is a base layer that supports anything else.
While being something fun, too.
Especially when it flows.
I love the idea of combining ideas, of making the complex simple, and presenting an original position.
To write something only I can write.
So how do we become so great, to learn to yield this powerful tool?
Just as every craft.
By reading a lot and writing a lot.
Especially from the greats.
And mimicking them.
To absorb from them, and what they absorbed from others, and make it a part of you.
To combine the parts and aspects of writing that give it its power and depth, exploring all aspects of the tool.
The beauty, the effectiveness, the simplicity, in your own style.
Shakespeare for his range.
To give shape to the brief candle of the ideas of our lives.
Orwell for his influence, to strip it to its point, to make an argument obvious and inevitable.
Tolstoy, Homer, Austen and Joyce.
Rumi, Borges, and Montaigne.
Study the great texts that shaped us.
And all those that you resonate with.
Become the fusion, synthesis,
and
And then reduce and simplify it to make something better.
Learn the principles, of what works.
And then toss them away into the wind
So experiment, do it badly, and make it your own.
Like how the Chinese emperors used to create new characters just for fun.
Because Every word was originally made by someone.
Like a Szegemon.
Converge two or more seemingly contradictory or unrelated fields or ideas.
Solve problems for people,
Combine and advance.
Or just make art.
And the real output is not what shows up on the paper.
It’s how it changes you.
And makes you become more YOU.
Like the greats from Franklin, Caeser, Napoleon and Churchill,
Their speeches and thought, success, and influence, was built by writing.
It lets you think clearly.
And like Buffet, do it every day.
Get 1% better each day.
And let that sh*t compound.
And that is why, whenever I wake.
I find the urge to write.
Whenever I want to think.
To solve.
Whenever I have a thousand ideas.
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth.
Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul.
Whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing, stuck between errands, void of flow; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately steering off course, when my finger starts to scroll, I diverge in a million directions, or feel the urge to punch a wall.
I account it high time to write as soon as I can.
Hi,
My name is Richard,
And I’m a writer.
In the following article I share more about how defining words helped me to become a clearer thinker.
