writing everyday
brute forcing intellect
A writer I've long admired, Scott Siskind (ssc, acx), was giving his advice for writers on the Dwarkesh Podcast:
"What advice do you have to somebody who wants to become good at it but isn't currently good at it?
Do it every day. Same advice as for everything else. I very rarely see new bloggers who are great. But I published every day for the first couple years of Slate Star Codex, maybe only the first year. Now I could never handle that schedule. I was in my 20s. I must have been briefly superhuman. But whenever I see a new person who blogs every day, it's very rare that it never goes anywhere or they don't get good. That's my best leading indicator for who's going to be a good blogger."
This is good advice. He goes on to say usually people don't do this because they feel they don't have much to say. Some people genuinely do have a shallow world model and little to say but most people do but its just not connecting between them, their writing and the audience.
I think two things are left unsaid which are critical. First, you can have a shallow world model or outlook and build it over time. Its not something damned to you. This is developed through reading, talking with people, asking interesting questions. This comes naturally to certain people but is not some arcane shadow magic. Second, this is one way to brute force deeper thinking by writing everyday. This style might not suite everybody and you genuinely might be an idiosyncratic person which can write better in certain moments until you feel tapped. He talks about his golden age in his 20s.
I'm writing this because its sound advice but its a certain type of blogging. There are other ways, outside of being extremely prolific to be a great writer as well. The other thing is you can have a golden age, and produce your best work effortlessly, and outside of that you might not be able to tap into that again.
--
Other great writers they mention: