Writing

How I rekindled my love of writing with a tireless robot

A colleague sent me an architecture document last spring. Seventy pages of what should have been clear technical thinking. Instead, it read like a corporate-speak generator had vomited onto a page. Every paragraph danced around its point using elaborate metaphors that went nowhere. The tone shifted wildly between sections, as if multiple people with no shared understanding had written it. “Did you use AI for this?” I asked. “Yeah, mostly,” they admitted. “Just gave it some notes and let it run.” ...

The fight for clarity and beauty in writing

I’m not old yet, but I’m becoming a curmudgeon. I even love the word curmudgeon, it’s a word that sounds like its meaning, with a spelling that feels all pissy and annoyed. It’s a word of mystery, and we know very little about its origin. It’s an interesting word, and interesting is good. I’m not a writer by trade. I write of course (we all do these days), but I’m not a professional. Despite this, I feel a strong connection to our language, I feel a need to savour words and protect how we use them. I feel uncomfortable when I see writing that wanders into the safe, passive, and bull-shitty mess that I see regularly in marketing and business. It’s a lesser language: it communicates poorly, using more words, and with less inspiration. ...

How to beat writers block

So you can’t write. You’re empty, tired, and unfocused. You’ve tried exercise, meditation, caffeine, binge sleeping, and a dozen other cures–but nothing comes out. And when you do happen to squeeze out a few paragraphs, you stall, spiralling further into your uninspired daze. You are burnt out. Writer’s block and burnout are the same problem: undue mental exhaustion brought on by overuse, misuse, and other stress. It’s important to understand that you cause your own burnout, either directly through your actions, or indirectly through your lack of action. It’s your choice. ...