4 ms·

Asking out of curiosity (and assuming you write as a hobby): what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to sa

by kuu 6y ago

Asking out of curiosity (and assuming you write as a hobby): what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to say? I understand that you want to be regular so you don't just "become lazy" and probably to avoid getting stuck, but I don't see neither what's the objective of forcing to do something you don't like - as long as we're talking about a hobby.

zimpenfish 6y ago
> what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to say? What might not be relevant/interesting to you could well be relevant/interesting to others. There's also the Field Notes philosophy - "I'm not writing it down to remember it later; I'm writing it down to remember it now" - blogging about something can solidify it in your mind because you have to work out how to express / explain it.
- richeyryan 6y ago
  I totally relate to this. Even if you never "publish" what you write it has an effect of clarifying what you think. It also makes it possible to develop and refine your thinking because you have a point of reference. I wrote a post a little while ago where I thought I had a good handle on what I wanted to say. I researched certain elements to make sure what I was saying was backed up. I finished the first draft and thought, "Cool, with a couple of revisions I'll be done". The funny thing was now that I had clarified my thoughts I began to encounter ideas that refined my perspective further and lead me to new and better ways of looking at the whole thing. This was in part because I was researching more and reading more as time went on but I'm pretty sure I would not have been primed for those breakthroughs if I hadn't already put what I thought in writing. As it stands, I don't intend to use that first draft and its ideas will reused in something largely different but writing it was invaluable.
watwut 6y ago
I think that original comment answers the what is the point question. When writing often, following happens: > It’s easier to be prolific. When you write every day it comes easy. Like brushing your teeth. You wake up and you’re full of thoughts on your general topic and you write them down. A quick edit, hit publish, and done. If it goes viral, fantastic. If peopel love it, amazing. If not, no big you try again next time. When writing only once in a while, following happens: > You reduce your writing output. And the ideas dry up. Writing becomes hard. You eke out 2, maybe 3, articles per week and it’s hard work. You struggle. You drag them out of your brain. It doesn’t feel right. So, you write often, to keep yourself in "writing is easy" mode. And you are also probably improving in writing every time you do it little bit. Personally, I have observed the same effect on (different) creative activities. When you do it often, it is easy. When you do it only when you plan masterpiece, it is hard to impossible.
- kuu 6y ago
  I understood it differently, like if writing so often for OP tend to develop in this unhappy state just by the fact of writing, like if by doing it all the time he/she went "dry" of ideas: > You can’t just write every day, you have to create things worth writing about! Experiences, research, work. It seems at some point he/she finds the writing must be something more than just writing
  - Swizec 6y ago
    It’s a balance. C players read B players writing about A players. You want your writing to be A player stuff. When you fall to B player level or less you’re just an unpaid journalist shouting with the masses. A level stuff takes time. Time you don’t have if you spend it all on just writing.
kmmlng 6y ago
Here is my take: Writing is thinking. As long as you have some topic to write about that has been on your mind for a while, writing about it is a wonderful opportunity to structure your thoughts, make explicit and conscious what has thus far been floating around in your unconscious and thereby see the topic more clearly, come to new observations and new conclusions.
Swizec 6y ago
> what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to say? Well the 2 O-1 visas, 1 upcoming greencard (fingers crossed), and ~$250k in infoproduct sales have been nice :) I rarely feel like I have nothing relevant or interesting to say. When I write daily for 3 weeks straight it gets a little wobbly. The problem for me is that the brain gets full and I have too many ideas rattling around in there. With a lesser publishing schedule I can create time to write/work on bigger long-term projects (like a book), but what ends up happening are these long HN comments and such because the writing has to go somewhere. Another issue is that with less publishing, suddenly nothing feels important enough. There's only 2 slots, better make them good! And that's paralyzing. More slots is better, but then there's no time for longer higher impact projects.

by kuu 6y ago

zimpenfish 6y ago

> what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to say? What might not be relevant/interesting to you could well be relevant/interesting to others. There's also the Field Notes philosophy - "I'm not writing it down to remember it later; I'm writing it down to remember it now" - blogging about something can solidify it in your mind because you have to work out how to express / explain it.

richeyryan 6y ago
I totally relate to this. Even if you never "publish" what you write it has an effect of clarifying what you think. It also makes it possible to develop and refine your thinking because you have a point of reference. I wrote a post a little while ago where I thought I had a good handle on what I wanted to say. I researched certain elements to make sure what I was saying was backed up. I finished the first draft and thought, "Cool, with a couple of revisions I'll be done". The funny thing was now that I had clarified my thoughts I began to encounter ideas that refined my perspective further and lead me to new and better ways of looking at the whole thing. This was in part because I was researching more and reading more as time went on but I'm pretty sure I would not have been primed for those breakthroughs if I hadn't already put what I thought in writing. As it stands, I don't intend to use that first draft and its ideas will reused in something largely different but writing it was invaluable.

watwut 6y ago

I think that original comment answers the what is the point question. When writing often, following happens: > It’s easier to be prolific. When you write every day it comes easy. Like brushing your teeth. You wake up and you’re full of thoughts on your general topic and you write them down. A quick edit, hit publish, and done. If it goes viral, fantastic. If peopel love it, amazing. If not, no big you try again next time. When writing only once in a while, following happens: > You reduce your writing output. And the ideas dry up. Writing becomes hard. You eke out 2, maybe 3, articles per week and it’s hard work. You struggle. You drag them out of your brain. It doesn’t feel right. So, you write often, to keep yourself in "writing is easy" mode. And you are also probably improving in writing every time you do it little bit. Personally, I have observed the same effect on (different) creative activities. When you do it often, it is easy. When you do it only when you plan masterpiece, it is hard to impossible.

kuu 6y ago
I understood it differently, like if writing so often for OP tend to develop in this unhappy state just by the fact of writing, like if by doing it all the time he/she went "dry" of ideas: > You can’t just write every day, you have to create things worth writing about! Experiences, research, work. It seems at some point he/she finds the writing must be something more than just writing
- Swizec 6y ago
  It’s a balance. C players read B players writing about A players. You want your writing to be A player stuff. When you fall to B player level or less you’re just an unpaid journalist shouting with the masses. A level stuff takes time. Time you don’t have if you spend it all on just writing.

kmmlng 6y ago

Here is my take: Writing is thinking. As long as you have some topic to write about that has been on your mind for a while, writing about it is a wonderful opportunity to structure your thoughts, make explicit and conscious what has thus far been floating around in your unconscious and thereby see the topic more clearly, come to new observations and new conclusions.

Swizec 6y ago

> what's the point of writing 2-3 per week if you don't think you have any relevant/interesting to say? Well the 2 O-1 visas, 1 upcoming greencard (fingers crossed), and ~$250k in infoproduct sales have been nice :) I rarely feel like I have nothing relevant or interesting to say. When I write daily for 3 weeks straight it gets a little wobbly. The problem for me is that the brain gets full and I have too many ideas rattling around in there. With a lesser publishing schedule I can create time to write/work on bigger long-term projects (like a book), but what ends up happening are these long HN comments and such because the writing has to go somewhere. Another issue is that with less publishing, suddenly nothing feels important enough. There's only 2 slots, better make them good! And that's paralyzing. More slots is better, but then there's no time for longer higher impact projects.