1. New. The writing must have new ideas*. Otherwise it wastes readers' time
2. Clear. The ideas must be stated simply and plainly. Otherwise, readers would have to jump through hoops to understand what you're trying to say. Again, this would waste their time
3. Stylish. Slick analogies (ala Paul Graham). Funny presentation (ala Scott Alexander). This criterion is optional
* A new idea could be a novel observation, understanding, or sentiment
As someone once told me, helping someone become their true selves is the greatest gift and, if performed between couples, "true love".
What was the motivation behind these other students (you mentioned programmers, consultants, etc). Job requirement? Recreation?
What's on your "favorite problems" list? During grad school, to help with my research, someone had encouraged me to produce such a list as well. The idea is to run through that list after each class, and see if my newly adopted techniques help solve anything. (The sage that recommended this method isn't Feynman, but probably has near-Feynman IQ!)
My list probably consist of: (a) remote work/education, (b) how to up-end the current college system, (c) AI applications (eg, machine translation)
Speaking of "writing from abundance", one technique I use is to write to friends in a somewhat uninhibited manner, like what I'm doing now. And then collect the written fragments and turn it into an essay.
Congrats on the first post! Keep writing.
What makes good writing? Here are my criteria:
1. New. The writing must have new ideas*. Otherwise it wastes readers' time
2. Clear. The ideas must be stated simply and plainly. Otherwise, readers would have to jump through hoops to understand what you're trying to say. Again, this would waste their time
3. Stylish. Slick analogies (ala Paul Graham). Funny presentation (ala Scott Alexander). This criterion is optional
* A new idea could be a novel observation, understanding, or sentiment
I love this Harper Lee's story!!!
As someone once told me, helping someone become their true selves is the greatest gift and, if performed between couples, "true love".
What was the motivation behind these other students (you mentioned programmers, consultants, etc). Job requirement? Recreation?
What's on your "favorite problems" list? During grad school, to help with my research, someone had encouraged me to produce such a list as well. The idea is to run through that list after each class, and see if my newly adopted techniques help solve anything. (The sage that recommended this method isn't Feynman, but probably has near-Feynman IQ!)
My list probably consist of: (a) remote work/education, (b) how to up-end the current college system, (c) AI applications (eg, machine translation)
Speaking of "writing from abundance", one technique I use is to write to friends in a somewhat uninhibited manner, like what I'm doing now. And then collect the written fragments and turn it into an essay.