Feb 10 (Wed), 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PST

Ultimate distillation of the entire Write of Passage class

• How to improve ideas
• Need a better note-taking system 📓
• Consider one's capture habit for both our own ideas and other people's ideas - is it efficient?
• Inspiring
• Useful
• Easily lost
• Personal
• Other people's ideas: save everything with Readwise (affiliate link)
• Own ideas:
• Write while reading
• Journaling (Matthew Mcconaughey kept a journal since he was 15!)
• Use voice transcription e.g. Otter after an experience to quickly capture
• Questions to ask
• Stories - what are your go-to stories?
• Insightful - In what ways do you surprise your peers?
• Experiences - Write about once-in-a-lifetime moments
• Memories - What's a memory you don't want to forget?
• Modern writing isn't created. It's assembled.
• Distill ideas like making maple syrup from sap 🍁
• The Content Triangle 🔺
• Conversation: tinder for the flame of epiphany 🔥
• Feedback
• Share
• Feedback
• Create
• Feedback
• Distribute
• Don't forget about voice transcription! 🗣️
• Explain the idea in 2 minutes or less
• We are better at talking than writing—it has had more years of evolution
• Originality is overrated
• Examples 📚
• Atomic Habits was created through:
• Write articles for 5 years
• Email short articles every week
• Refine and compile into book form
• Leverage audience along the way to launch the book
• Sapiens does not contain original research but is successful regardless
• There's 1010 autobiographies of Winston Churchill!
• Myths of writing education (invert them!) 🧙🏼
• Solitude - instead, create feedback loops
• Academic - instead, anyone can do it
• Scarcity - instead, take notes and use other people's ideas
• Publish - instead, create microcontent over time
• Write CLEAR Sentences
• Create a rhythm 🥁
• Don't just write words. Write music. 🎶
• Vary sentence length (Gary Provost example)
• Diversify your vernacular
• Words people know, but don't say is the sweet spot
• E.g. cordial instead of nice, but don't use copacetic
• The Story Roller-Coaster 🎢
• Setup (gentle ascent)
• Conflict (rapid descent)
• Resolution (gentle ascent)
• Link your sentences
• Eliminate anything that's confusing
• Add colorful details
• Remove unnecessary words
• Write of Passage: Write first, research second
• Find
• Assemble
• Speak
• Teach
• How to grow your audience
• Cross public vs private bridge 🌉
• Grow your audience on public platforms, build relationship on private ones
• Build a personal monopoly
• Unusual - skills or knowledge not often found together
• Complementary - skills that reinforce and amplify each other
• Experiential - skills gained through experience
• Specific - niche
• Recap
• Build an audience of like-minded people (don't have to be like Oprah level though!)
• Niche Fame
• Niche - personal monopoly
• Trusted - they don't just know you, they respect you
• Distribution - own your distribution
• Lucrative - long-term social and financial benefits