“To write well, all you have to do is cultivate your mind and then write what you see.” When I talk to people who have worked with their ideas seriously for 10+ years, it feels like I can throw any topic on them and they’ll have an interesting idea, or if not an idea so at least an unexpected way of approaching it.
Fantastic list. This one was particularly resonant: "I have more exciting ideas when I don’t feel shame about what excites me, when I allow myself to be stupid and naive and boring."
That shame prevented me from publishing anything online for years, and one wonderful outgrowth of continuing to do so is that the shame seems to lessen with each post shared. Twin realizations:
1. No one really minds all that much what you're thinking about because they won't pay attention unless it happens to matter to them.
2. Stupid/naive/boring to you is often fascinating to (select) other people. The stuff that strikes you as so obvious that it doesn't bear saying may be wildly novel to other people (who have their own "boring" stuff that will blow others' minds).
That line got me too. I too struggled to write for years due to thinking I had nothing to share and I was just too boring for anyone to read me. But then I came across wonderful teachings which explored how to write from a place of deep retrospection, where you share memories and experiences of past events and happenings, and the learnings and insights from them.
Everyone has had experiences in their lifetime which brought about some kind of transformation leading you to make a change in you life.
This kind of writing is both cathartic and useful for the reader.
I collect people. Which I realize makes me sound like a serial killer. But I now have tens of people on speed dial who are interesting in some way. When I want an idea, I just talk to them. I have also allowed myself to be collected in turn. Only fair.
Further to point 6, the way to have a few good ideas is to have lots of shit ones. If shit ideas were oil, I’d be Saudi Arabia.
Interesting as a writer how do you relate to Twitter positively?
Typically (maybe my feed is different) I get a lot of techie and startup news. What aspects of Twitter would you say "fill your dam" and how would you recommend cultivating Twitter such that it fills a person's dam?
Block nonsense, find interesting individuals and start replying to them and make friends, get some add-on that makes search better and then rely mostly on search and notifications and lists to surface interesting tweets.
"To write well all you need to do is develop your mind. If you have thought deeply, nearly everything looks interesting." - Oscar Wilde
Thank you! I was assuming it must be (ascribed to) Wilde, but couldn't find it.
Fantastic list. This one was particularly resonant: "I have more exciting ideas when I don’t feel shame about what excites me, when I allow myself to be stupid and naive and boring."
That shame prevented me from publishing anything online for years, and one wonderful outgrowth of continuing to do so is that the shame seems to lessen with each post shared. Twin realizations:
1. No one really minds all that much what you're thinking about because they won't pay attention unless it happens to matter to them.
2. Stupid/naive/boring to you is often fascinating to (select) other people. The stuff that strikes you as so obvious that it doesn't bear saying may be wildly novel to other people (who have their own "boring" stuff that will blow others' minds).
That line got me too. I too struggled to write for years due to thinking I had nothing to share and I was just too boring for anyone to read me. But then I came across wonderful teachings which explored how to write from a place of deep retrospection, where you share memories and experiences of past events and happenings, and the learnings and insights from them.
Everyone has had experiences in their lifetime which brought about some kind of transformation leading you to make a change in you life.
This kind of writing is both cathartic and useful for the reader.
I collect people. Which I realize makes me sound like a serial killer. But I now have tens of people on speed dial who are interesting in some way. When I want an idea, I just talk to them. I have also allowed myself to be collected in turn. Only fair.
Further to point 6, the way to have a few good ideas is to have lots of shit ones. If shit ideas were oil, I’d be Saudi Arabia.
“.” The best ideas tend to be fragile and can’t stand the scrutiny of others until they’ve learned to walk. “ this is so insightful
oof, Twombly`s Rome apartment for the win! Enjoyed this piece, too.
Interesting as a writer how do you relate to Twitter positively?
Typically (maybe my feed is different) I get a lot of techie and startup news. What aspects of Twitter would you say "fill your dam" and how would you recommend cultivating Twitter such that it fills a person's dam?
https://nabeelqu.substack.com/p/the-serendipity-machine
Block nonsense, find interesting individuals and start replying to them and make friends, get some add-on that makes search better and then rely mostly on search and notifications and lists to surface interesting tweets.