Blogmark

My initial takeaway as I started reading this post from Ben is the distinction between a) wanting to get an idea out there and b) wanting to sit down and write a long-form article on that idea. Most of my drive to put something out on the internet is a (to share the idea), but then I've convinced myself that the only way to do that is via b (writing it up in long-form).

Turning an idea into long-form is usually where the idea goes to die.

These blogmarks and my TILs are two forms of writing that have saved me from the feeling that I need to package my ideas in long-form Official Blog Post™ writing. I've lowered the barrier to writing and intentionally constrained it to keep it from feeling like too big of a task.

This makes it easier to "just spit it out".

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On becoming better at writing -- I also like what Ben has to say here about the traditional "read more to write better" advice.

When you want to become a better writer, you get told to read more. I don’t think that’s quite right, or not the point I’d emphasize. Instead I’d say: When you want to write better, you should pay more attention when you’re reading to whether what you’re reading works for you and then pause a beat, and become aware of that feeling and, momentarily or however long you want, try to figure out why. …or why not.

Read more, sure, but read more while paying attention to what about that writing works or doesn't work for you.