Introduction

This is the seventh post in the series of posting a piece of long form writing every day until February 1st.

Given it’s been a week, I’ve decided to keep this one brief and write about some of what I’ve learned so far from the process.

Scope

My biggest issues so far have been related to scoping down to a topic that’s manageable in a single day. I expected this, to be fair, but the reality of pruning is much harder than I had anticipated.

Once I start writing, new ideas emerge, old ideas shape-shift, and I get an urge to do more reference research on the topics I’m writing about. These waves all constructively interfere to create a lot of power, but restraining myself is difficult. I think I’ve done well so far, but it doesn’t feel good to pare the thought tree so much while writing.

I think the solution to this is to plan more effectively. It’d be good to start splitting up ideation from execution so I can get a flavor of what might begin to unfold in the latter stage.

I’ve also noticed that I have the belief that “longer = better”, and I’m surprised by that. I didn’t think I held that belief, but as I’ve gone through this work I’m noticing a set of mental patterns that tell me to keep going for lengths sake.

Will be keeping an eye on that…

Technicality and Focus

There were a few goals for this challenge when I embarked:

  1. Sharpen my ability to reason effectively about the external world (as opposed to the internal world of my own thoughts and emotions)
  2. Create a strong personal brand
  3. Learn to write better
  4. Catalyze personal growth

I think goals 1, 3, and 4 are all being hit. I’m not thrilled with my progress on goal 2.

The hope for my “personal brand” was to marry technical depth with intuitive insight and colorful writing. I wanted to explore complex and topical issues, while imbuing my work with the power that I find in my personal writing, but I don’t feel I’ve been able to do this effectively yet.

Ultimately, the goal is to create new knowledge about myself and the world. I still think this is on the horizon, but I notice myself still feeling called towards the abstract and pseudo-artistic prose I write with for myself.

To develop here, I need to do a better job of planning and collecting information before I sit down to write. I think the process would develop better if I collected information about the next day’s topic the night before, and begin to commit to an idea before I start writing.

Right now, I begin to write, see where curiosity is pulling me, and follow the path of least resistance. Introducing a bit more friction is probably a good idea.

Reach

I’d like to do more to get real human eyeballs on this work. I send out a Tweet each day, but I’ve noticed that it’s unsatisfying to do so little. The strongest goal when I started this was to create a practice that continuously refines my thinking, but I’ve noticed that I also want this work to create momentum for Concordance and myself. It’s important to honor that.

The goal for building reach is to expand the surface area for opportunity. I’m still trying to make a home in AI, intellectual spaces generally, and find my people. My life would get better if I could do those things, and I think “reach” could help.

Here’s my plan:

  1. Cross-post to Substack
  2. Create real thumbnails so links have visual content
  3. Start tagging people I’d like to read my work directly

Another related learning here is that good writing takes a long time. I think I unconsciously believed that I could sit down and spin up a great piece everyday without much time invested, but this is proving false. It’s difficult doing the work of reaching a wider audience when I know that I haven’t put the prerequisite time in to refine the work I’m doing.

It’s generally true that I’m more ambitious when I know I put in the required effort. Setting aside time explicitly for this practice will probably have positive secondary effects on the effort I’m willing to expend getting the output seen.

Conclusion

This has been an incredible exercise so far, but a lot needs to develop. Instantiating this during the holiday season is difficult with travel/family commitments, but I appreciate how it’s grounding me in some structure.

However, I’m really excited. There have been a few moments of serendipity that indicate this is the right path, and I’m curious to see how things unfold. I am a bit frustrated that the tone of my personal writing is not carrying over into this practice yet, but I’m patient.

After spending a year as a musician, I think I have a decent sense of how creative process develops. Show up every day, be patient, bring full attention, tinker with the process, and good things happen.