Writing

Credo for Writing

1. I.

   "You can outsource your thinking, but you cannot outsource your understanding." – Andrej Karpathy. There are two types of people: Writes and Write-Nots. Writes are only a small percentage, but most of them will succeed because migrating thoughts from brain to paper requires a special mode of thinking. It should feel like a tug-of-war. Write-Nots are those who don't write at all, or who have AI write for them. Today, an increasing number of undergraduates can be classified as AI-Write-Nots. The edge lies in understanding that all Writes are bad at first, and that writing is a continuous journey.

2. II.

   "When I write a sentence that seems too complicated, or that uses unnecessarily intellectual words, it doesn't seem fancy to me. It seems clumsy." – Paul Graham. Write simply. My favorite word for this is succinct. Write as if you're speaking to a friend. The wisdom lies in the idea itself, so don't pollute it with jargon. It's easy to fool some readers, but the discerning ones will cut through the noise, capture the idea at heart, and likely detect the insecurity beneath. On your writing journey, you will produce work that makes you feel as wise as Aristotle, or as artistic as Van Gogh or Mozart. But unfortunately, the idea turns out to be wrong. Cut it. It took a lot of effort, but it's a sunk cost. You still learned.