You Are Fucked If You Can't Write Clearly. And That's Pretty Scary.

Here is something that scares me. Recently, I’ve had a bunch of opportunities to do independent science things with cool people. These have come from a long chain of events that all started from an essay I wrote on part-time research.

And so, I’ve learned that writing can change a life. I would’ve been a lot worse off if I hadn’t written those essays.

But what compelled people to read those pieces? I’ve thought a lot about writing that compels people to read.

I used to think it was being convincing. But now I don’t think that’s true. Unfortunately, when you write something, it’s likely that people who disagree with you will stop reading. That sucks, and is why I cherish people who criticise my ideas.

And this gives us a puzzle. If the set of people who read your stuff mostly agree with you, then what makes your writing compelling? What value are you providing to them?

This is what I tried to get from feedback. Most of the comments on my popular pieces say something like ‘you validated what I was thinking this whole time’. And now, I think compelling writing is when you give clarity to ideas that your audience already has, but previously could not express. I wouldn’t call this ‘group-think’. That would imply that ideas in people’s heads are well-formed already, and usually they’re not.

At the moment, there has been no formula for me to produce clarity. I just keep writing and rewriting until something clicks. That’s pretty scary given how much my career has ridden on it so far.