Polished: https://vihaansondhi.substack.com/p/how-to-be-a-great-blogger
First Draft
The fact that I’m writing this is funny because I’m a pretty unsuccessful blogger, but from analyzing other ppl, if you do this for long enough, you’ll probably get there eventually.
Everyone tells you to “write about interesting things” and “write stuff that ppl want to read”. This is hard, though, and what it often leads to is people trying their hardest and then defaulting to standard things. However, I think I’ve figured out the way to do this.
All of this stems from the understanding that current knowledge work practices aren’t taken seriously (https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zBmSSpM1WfFDehxNCBcqSZp tell them that another good way to understand how to be a good knowledge worker is to just explore this). I’m not saying that you won’t get there w/o it, but the most effective and reliable way to become a successful knowledge worker is by putting thought into and iteratively developing a successful strategy.
Consume content from varied authors on completely different subjects, and take good notes on them using Evergreen Notes (just reading some samples of Andy’s notes should help you build a good intuition of what evergreen notes should look like). Don’t just take notes on what you read, take notes on what you think. Take notes on fleeting thoughts, interesting insights, everything. Take reading seriously, however, and only let good content come to you. When you do decide to read, read it in a structured way by setting up a reading inbox, and reading deeply thru Careful Thinking. Reading a few things deeply per day is better than consuming a lot of content rapidly. What a lot of note taking misses is that it becomes a collection of what you read. That’s good. But you should take it further by compiling a personal library of what you think. Your entire note-taking system should be geared towards better thinking. What you want is to be able to link ideas together so that you can create connections between thoughts, and overtime create new thoughts. You want to push the frontiers of your thoughts and the only way to do that is by using evergreen notes. Another, optional, but super recommended way to work on this is using a memory system like Anki. Most ppl use memory systems for things like learning languages or studying for school, but it’s also valuable for doing it with the best information you come across (link to getting back to our first brains article if you want to be convinced). Having some of the best knowledge floating around in your head is a multiplier on the effectiveness of the Evergreen Notes system. One of the most important things that lots of linking helps you do is think about how all your ideas fit together as a whole. Having some of that information in your head makes it more likely that other different ideas will pop into your brain at the same time (I think. It’s very hard to prove this for sure but it feels intuitively true). Writing about the same standard stuff is easier, but it’s more risky because you’ll be another part of the noise. If you use evergreen notes, you’re almost guaranteed to come up with some big ideas eventually. Eventually you want to be able to do Contrarian Thinking. For this, it’s important to constantly and religiously question everything in your life thru the framework of First Principles.
On learning how to write well: follow How to Write Better pretty religiously. Also do what benjamin franklin did https://notes.andymatuschak.org/zBmSSpM1WfFDehxNCBcqSZp. Think about some of the best examples of writing you’ve come across that has personally resonated, read them thoroughly and note down all of the different pieces of evidence they used. Then, try to write the article yourself. Try to analyze what you did better than the original and what the original did better than you.
Systematize the process. How much time will you spend reading and consuming? How much time will you spend creating? How will you receive feedback on what you write? How much time do you want to spend on each post? How much time do you want to spend note-taking? How often do you want to review your over system and revise it? One of the attractions of being a content creator is the various freedoms, but over freedom is restricting.
I won’t tell you whether or not you should release often and not be a perfectionist, or obsess more over your craft. I won’t tell you whether you should read and consume more or less, because the advice that’s true for some is wrong for others. I trust you to put systems in place (journaling) that can help you evaluate each day and what you should change. really adopt the mentality of getting 1% better each day.
Basically I can boil it down to:
- Create an efficient system.
- Do journaling or something else that can help you constantly refine the system.
- Do good reading.
- Do good note-taking.
- Put some upfront effort into developing writing skills.
- Iteratively improve your writing over time.
But probably the most important thing that’s the bedrock of all of this is hone your craft/adopt the craftsman’s mindset. Pursue virtuosity in this field like a basketball player would pursue virtuosity.