Why I'm starting a Substack
Hello Substack
About a month ago, I posted: “I’m challenging myself to post daily on X. My goal is to become a more clear, concise, and precise writer, and to think out-loud on the biggest stage: the internet.”
That challenge has been going well. I’ve found the character limit to be a great forcing function for concise writing.
To further develop my writing skills, I’m going to start publishing long-form content to supplement my X posts. Like posting to X, it’ll be a good way to time-stamp my thoughts, so I can see what I thought when and why I thought those things.
I also want to improve at distilling my thoughts and thinking more deeply and clearly.
Paul Graham recently published “Writes an Write-nots” where he predicted that “in a couple decades there won’t be many people who can write.” He explains: “The reason so many people have trouble writing is that it's fundamentally difficult. To write well you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard.” With AI, “all pressure to write has dissipated.” Which will lead to: “a world divided into writes and write-nots… a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots.”
But PG says today’s “situation is not unprecedented,” comparing it to “preindustrial times,” when “most people's jobs made them strong.” If you want to be strong today, “you work out… but only those who choose to.”
So this is one way I’m working out my brain. I’ve found myself using AI anytime I don’t want to think deeply about a topic, and I fear I’ll slowly become a ‘think-not.’ I won’t use AI to write any essays on this blog, with the intent of re-learning how to translate my thoughts and reasoning onto paper without an intermediary.
Critical feedback appreciated.