Writing is a Skill that Can Be Trained

Every time you put out a post, get feedback, make improvements, and carry those improvements forward into future posts, that's essentially a "rep" of deliberate practice.

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Like math, writing is a skill that can be trained, even if it comes more naturally to some people than others.

How to get started? Just put up a simple blog and put up an article. Whatever’s on the top of your mind.

Not sure what’s on your mind? Look back at some previous things you’ve written for school, on X/Twitter, whatever, and stitch them into something.

Don’t think about it for days. Just do it now. Right now. Tonight.

“But I need time to write an essay, and take it through stages of proofreading, and…”

Bullshit.

The post doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t have to be fancy. All that matters is that it communicates an interesting idea that resonates with people.

Don’t believe it? Check out this 245-word gem, a Math Academy student’s insight about the learning process, that’s now all over the web: https://google.com/search?q=%22You+are+not+dumb,+you+just+lack+the+prerequisites%22

If you’re seriously learning a subject, you can write about that. Lots of people try to learn things, but few people do it seriously, and even fewer write about it.

So there you go! There’s something that lots of people care about, that you’re uniquely positioned to write about, and that few people write about.

Everybody loves a hero’s journey, and learners are heroes in a story of (wo)man vs mediocrity.

And everybody loves a relatable hero, and learning is an emotional process. It’s raw and relatable by default – and the more that’s reflected in your writing, the better.

People will never get tired reading about relatable people working hard to achieve their goals, because they’ll never get tired imagining themselves doing the same.

Once you have a post, just post the link here on X with a little tldr. (If you have Premium, you can just dump the whole post in here.) You can also link it in comments when the conversation naturally flows into it.

You’ll probably get some feedback from people who agree or disagree or are confused. Often, disagreement turns out to be confusion.

Sometimes confusion is your own fault. Sometimes it’s not. But the more you study the confusion, the more you figure out how to write in a way that avoids the confusion, regardless of who is to blame.

Every time you put out a post, get feedback, make improvements, and carry those improvements forward into future posts, that’s essentially a “rep” of deliberate practice.

As you get better at writing, you’ll grow your audience and throw yourself into a compounding cycle of bigger audience → more feedback → more improvements → more traction → bigger audience.

And this will feed your motivation to write more and more, compounding the cycles faster and faster, accelerating your progress.

But the first step is, well, to take the first step. Put up a blog, put up a post, and put it out here.

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.