Conversation is a first draft of your thoughts. Writing is a way to edit your thinking. twitter.com/BarrettABrooks…

The bill for miscommunication always comes due.

Cold DM's 101: If you don't write a valuable message to them, don't expect a valuable reply.

The best writing advice I ever received was "always write for a specific, real-life person". Don't write a blog post for junior developers, write it for your buddy Mark who started his first dev job last summer. Your writing will be clearer, more authentic, and easier too.

1/ A thread on why your cold emails are getting <1% reply rates and what to do about it.

9/ Most good ideas are nuanced. These caveats – spoken – will bore the listener. Unspoken, they will misguide the listener (especially, if that listener is you). Writing gives you the ability to take all those caveats and convey them in a powerful and cohesive whole.

I'm fascinated by the ability of corporate communication to use so many words while essentially saying nothing.

First law of communication: whatever can be misinterpreted will be misinterpreted.

How to do cold outreach: 1. Read up on what the person you’re trying to contact has been up to 2. Create a shareable piece of work that interprets, distills, or responds to their work 3. Send it to them with your request, but no expectation of a reply or action

Every time I try to be “high energy” in recordings, on stage, on Zoom, etc I come across as cheerily fake The real secret is to amp up the energy while staying true to who you are

A content "engine" is a process for: 1. Consuming high-value information. 2. Synthesizing ideas out of it. 3. Narrowing into the good stuff. ... and doing this without burning out.

If you want to write well, writing style is only 10% of it. 90% is actually having something to say. Aim to think well. Thread: Learnings from many years of writing...

Telling an author "You're my favorite writer" is like telling a comedian "You're my favorite speaker." Writing and speaking are how ideas are distributed. But 90% of the work is the thinking before the distribution. When you praise creators, praise their minds.

I removed abstract words like "charted" and "landscape," and I reduced a conceptual idea into a specific example. By removing overhead, the underlying point stands out.‍ The complexity of your writing should emerge from the strength of its ideas—not the wording.

Succinctness Step 2: Rephrase paragraphs The art of rewriting is the art of becoming self-aware about the purpose of every word you've written. • Remove ideas that aren't critical to the central point. • Don't describe what doesn't need to be described.

2. You can also generate intrigue by withholding information: Tease readers with a question you don't answer until later. If you weave (1) novelty and (2) withhold information, readers are likely to remain engaged. @waitbutwhy is great at this.

At the beginning of a writing session, after all the bad ideas are written down, your brain begins pattern-matching what MAKES them bad. Then it can start hunting for what's good. In other words, don't resist bad ideas—lean into them to start.

There are two ways to call people out: 1. Low effort: Merely call the Tweeter out on their social bias. This is fly-by Tweeting. 2. High effort: Explain why they should do better and suggest diversified accounts to follow.

One of my favorite writing tricks is to only write my introduction. Then I hand it to friends and ask: "After reading this, what do you really want the rest of this article to cover?" They'll give you ideas that are better than your original intentions for the article.

Takeaways: • Use simple wording and simple sentences. • Simple language doesn't weaken ideas. It strengthens them by helping what matters stand out. • Evenly distribute dopamine hits. Rely on feedback; it's hard to judge this yourself.

Here's my technique for interweaving novelty. • Ask feedback-givers to highlight every sentence that gives them a dopamine hit. Those are the moments of novelty: "Ahh, that's interesting." • For each hit, increase a counter at the end of its sentence. Like this (3).

Step 1: Rephrase entire sections For each section of your post: • Read all its paragraphs. • Take an hour-long break. • Rewrite the section from memory—focusing only on key points.

"Instead of telling us a thing was 'terrible,' describe it so that we’ll BE terrified." —C.S. Lewis In short, I personally define poetry as unconventional third-order descriptions.

Vividness isn't just detail. It's detail that resonates. It's the articulation of the rarely articulated nuances of life—in a way that makes you remark, "Ahh, that’s how I'd put words to that feeling."

I figured out how to avoid nearly all meetings. My calendar is now free and clear 😂 There were 4 realizations: