Ideas Matter

More people should start a blog. Writing on the internet is the most important thing I've done for my career. A well-written article is like a beacon that attracts like-minded thinkers. Here are 18 of my favorite articles about why you should write & how to do it... WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE #1. "You should write because when you know that you’re going to write, it changes the way you live." James Somers jsomers.net/blog/more-peop… #2. "I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing." George Orwell orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-fou… #3. "In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind." Joan Didion genius.com/Joan-didion-wh… #4. "Writing helps you think better." Alexey Guzey guzey.com/personal/why-h… #5. "Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought." Paul Graham paulgraham.com/words.html #6. "Write to learn" and "write because you need to write." Noah Smith noahpinion.blog/p/noah-smiths-… HOW TO WRITE #7. "Write a bad version 1 as fast as you can; rewrite it over and over; cut everything unnecessary...." Paul Graham (Probably the most impactful writing advice ever on a per-word basis.) paulgraham.com/writing44.html #8. "Every article has thrust and drag. The thrust of a piece is what motivates readers to invest the energy necessary to extract its meaning. It is the reason they click. Drag is everything that makes the reader’s task harder, such as meandering intros, convoluted sentences, abstruse locution and even little things like a missing Oxford comma." Nathan Baschez every.to/divinations/ho… #9. "Write like you talk." Paul Graham paulgraham.com/talk.html #10. "We are supposed to be—are required to be—interesting. We’re not only allowed to think about audience, we’d better. What we’re doing in writing is not all that different from what we’ve been doing all our lives, i.e., using our personalities as a way of coping with life. Writing is about charm, about finding and accessing and honing ones’ particular charms." George Saunders newyorker.com/books/page-tur… #11. "Write simply." Paul Graham paulgraham.com/simply.html #12. "When you sit down to write, there is only one important person in your life. This is someone you will never meet, called a reader. You are not writing to impress the scientist you have just interviewed, nor the professor who got you through your degree, nor the editor who foolishly turned you down, or the rather dishy person you just met at a party and told you were a writer. Or even your mother. You are writing to impress someone hanging from a strap in the tube between Parson's Green and Putney, who will stop reading in a fifth of a second, given a chance." Tim Radford theguardian.com/science/blog/2… #13. "Divide things into small chunks," "use microhumor," "use concrete examples." Scott Alexander slatestarcodex.com/2016/02/20/wri… #14. "How people can think about their writing without thinking about readers is probably the biggest challenge you face. You've been trained to think about writing formally...you have to stop...you have to think about readers." Larry McEnerney youtube.com/watch?v=vtIzMa… #15. "How to write on the internet & keep doing it." Niko McCarty (self-referential, I know). asimov.press/p/three-years MISC. #16. "Why You Should Stop Caring What Other People Think." Tim Urban waitbutwhy.com/2014/06/taming… #17. What it's like to actually be a blogger, for 15 years no less! Freddie deBoer freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/15-years-of-… #18. "I do these things because I want to be tormented and challenged and interested. I want to build things, and then break them." The Oatmeal theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy I wrote this post because @IdeasFellows began yesterday, and so writing is top of mind. I want more scientists (especially) to write and bring good ideas into the world. Which articles did I miss? Thanks to @paulg @alexeyguzey @slatestarcodex @Noahpinion and others for sharing their advice.

Announcing the inaugural Ideas Matter cohort! Our 14 fellows represent 6 different countries and will spend 8 weeks writing about big ideas in biology. Their work spans everything from animal welfare to synthetic biology and biodefense. Learn more: ideasmatter.co/cohort-01-biol…

Announcing the inaugural Ideas Matter cohort! Our 14 fellows represent 6 different countries and will spend 8 weeks writing about big ideas in biology. Their work spans everything from animal welfare to synthetic biology and biodefense. Learn more: ideasmatter.co/cohort-01-biol…

Announcing the inaugural Ideas Matter cohort! Our 14 fellows represent 6 different countries and will spend 8 weeks writing about big ideas in biology. Their work spans everything from animal welfare to synthetic biology and biodefense. Learn more: ideasmatter.co/cohort-01-biol…

Announcing the inaugural Ideas Matter cohort! Our 14 fellows represent 6 different countries and will spend 8 weeks writing about big ideas in biology. Their work spans everything from animal welfare to synthetic biology and biodefense. Learn more: ideasmatter.co/cohort-01-biol…