I understand the author is trying to teach the importance of putting yourself in the reader's mind, and he's packaging that message in a kind of tough love. He

I understand the author is trying to teach the importance of putting yourself in the reader's mind, and he's packaging that message in a kind of tough love. He's not wrong, but if you take his article at face value you'll miss something very important. Over the past few decades, I've had several hundred articles published in print, blogged extensively, and run a reasonably popular podcast. By far my most successful content has been when I have opened up and shared honestly about my experiences and explained in detail how certain events and decisions affected my life. People are happy to read your shit if you are sharing something honest. Honest, personal communication is so rare these days, people will actively seek it out. What causes readers to tune out is authors who try to fake this kind of sincerity, or who try to engage the reader emotionally while they themselves hide behind the fiction of being an objective observer.