There’s no right way to love — she loves me in a million.
Like when she laughs at my shitty jokes, or when, every time I ask, she reminds me of our anniversary while shaking her head and letting out a laugh. She probably thinks it’s another shitty joke. It’s not. I just have a shitty memory.
That’s love.
When she tickles me even though I hate being tickled and she knows how much I hate it but does it anyway, and I laugh. I laugh until my laughter starts to turn into annoyance and I’m seconds away from losing it, and she stops. She stops at the perfect time. We’ve only been together for two and a half years but it’s like she’s known me for lifetimes.
That’s love.
When she says “thank you” for the tiniest littlest things — like when I finally take out the trash after last night’s takeout was spilling over the bin and our apartment was starting to smell like a frat house — and she doesn’t bug me about it. She understands. She even helps me double bag it.
That, my friend, is love.
And every time I open the car door for her, without fail, she kisses me. And she never asks for the aux, and she still vibes to the same songs I’ve been playing since our first date — or at least pretends to. Her backseat driving drives me insane, but when she catches herself, she apologizes and really means it, and I melt. But nothing screams love louder than when she curses at other drivers and their mothers. She’s a ride or die with enough road rage for the both of us.
I love how she loves me.
How she rubs my belly, and wraps her arm around my bicep, and scratches my head, and buries her face in my chest. And how she wakes up in the middle of the night, walks to the living room, finds me uncomfortably asleep on the couch, asks me to come to bed, and pretty much carries me back to our room. An angel.
She loves me when she tells me I’ve hurt her. When she asks for a break — a few minutes to regulate because we’ve been arguing and we both suck at it. When she cries. When I apologize and really mean it, and she forgives me, and hugs me back, and tells me how this argument was better than the last hundred and how proud she is of how far we’ve come, and how safe she feels, and how much she loves me.
And then I make a shitty joke and she laughs again.
If a violent criminal is looking for an innocent life to torture, and you know where the person is hiding, it’d be more than ok to lie to about the intended victim’s whereabouts. In fact, it’d be a compassionate and heroic act.
I can think of a few other — and rather rare — scenarios where we can wield the power of lies for good.
Lying about one’s abilities in a concentration camp or lying whether you have food hidden away during a famine may be essential for your and your family’s survival. Good lies. Lying to protect innocent lives from death and injustice will forever be a righteous act in my book.
However, rarely do we lie to protect our survival or that of others’. More often than not, we lie to protect our fragile egos, manipulate how others perceive us, and keep our bad habits alive. We misuse the power of lies, the same power that can save lives, to hide from the power of truth — a power that can transform them.
Over the last few months, I’ve been obsessing over a single question: What lies am I telling myself?
The answers have been painful, surprising, and liberating. I’ve changed jobs, deleted apps, deleted friends, played a fuckton of chess, read a fuckton of books, mustered the courage to ask for help, got the help, regained my focus, took back my time, and even lost a few pounds. Most importantly, I rediscovered pieces of myself I thought I’d lost, and found new sources of self-confidence and new levels of self-respect.
These last few months taught me that the quality of your life hinges on your willingness to be honest with yourself, that self-confidence is a result of the promises you keep, and self-respect feeds off the quality of those promises.
Humanity’s greatest creative minds share a crucial practice: reflection, which helps in deepening their understanding of themselves, the world around them, and their craft.
Put simply, reflection is intentional thought — an opportunity to pause, observe, and sort through ideas, feelings, and behaviors, creating the conditions necessary to grow, succeed, and thrive.
But reflection isn’t only reserved for creative geniuses. Research shows that employees who spend 15 minutes at the end of their day on their work perform 23% better after 10 days than those who don’t. In 2011, a study published in The Journal of Psychology revealed that college students who were more self-reflective were more happy, productive, and less burnt out.
The benefits of a consistent reflective practice are obvious: improved work, productivity, and mental health. But if the return on investment of reflection is so high, you might be wondering, “Why am I not reflecting more often?” I’d encourage you to reflect on that. If you do, you’ll find yourself in one (or more) of the following buckets:
You don’t know how. Maybe you’ve tried but didn’t know where to begin. Reflection is a process. If you don’t know the process, it can lead to feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and discouraged.
You don’t like the process. Reflection requires you to get out of your typical mode of operation, your comfort zone. In this fast-paced world obsessed with perfection, slowing down to explore ourselves and make a mess is uncomfortable. Reflection requires patience and vulnerability, neither of which is actually fun.
You don’t like the results. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. These lies become apparent during times of reflection. When you reflect effectively, you quickly become aware of your shortcomings and weaknesses so you get defensive and run away.
You have shit to do. You have places to be. You have no time to waste. Reflection probably feels like a waste of time. photoBut what’s the point of going fast if you’re headed in the wrong direction?
I’ve been guilty of all of the above and I’ve tried countless approaches to become more reflective. There are thousands of resources out there, from apps to journals to prompts and practices. What’s worked for me is a simple daily retro. The best part? It only takes a minute to do and can be done with pen and paper or digitally.
Here’s how I do it.
At the end of my day, I ask myself three simple questions:
What’s going well?
What’s kinda going well?
What’s not going well?
I then give each question an honest, one-sentence answer. Keyword: honest.
After a few days, patterns begin to emerge. If I find myself writing the same thing for the “going well” part, I find new ways to push myself. Patterns in the “kinda well” bucket prompt me to focus on my daily habits, values, and relationships. If something keeps “not going well,” I naturally begin developing a plan, shifting my behavior, or tweaking my mindset.
This simple approach of writing 3 sentences every night has allowed me to circumvent the common challenges of reflection, and to absorb its benefits. It isn’t rocket science. It’s about looking at yourself in the mirror, recalibrating your compass, and letting your truth (and your willingness to face it) guide you.
This is the story of someone you’ve probably never heard of.
I first learned of Ivan Ilyich just last week, as I browsed the shelves of Portland’s iconic Powell’s City of Books. I went in with a clear mission: track down a short story collection recommended to me by a lovely, book-loving Brit, and something short I could devour on the flight back to Seattle.
Sandwiched between the massive War and Peace and Anna Karenina, I spotted a razor-thin booklet: The Death of Ivan Ilyich. I had never read Tolstoy before, so I figured this little novella would be the perfect literary snack for my flight, and a great primer for his more renowned and much longer works.
I had no idea that the 60-page book, priced at a measly $5.98, was going to be the catalyst for a much-needed existential crisis.
Maybe I’m a sick man. I’ve learned to welcome, embrace, and even enjoy these moments of ego death and paradigm shifts. Most of the books I read and the films I watch are hand-picked to send me into a spiral. I’m a fiend for spiritual reshufflings and uncomfortable truths. I purposely seek them out but often fail. This time, however, I got lucky.
My copy of Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Ivan Ilyich was a judge who spent his life striving for a “decent life approved by society.” He was, at his core, an insecure man — a serial careerist who spent his every breath chasing status, job security, and wealth. Ironically, this very insecurity fueled his success, and the more successful he became, the more his obsession with the opinions of others grew.
One day, while hanging some curtains in his new home, Ivan fell and hit his side. The small bruise quickly turned into a serious injury that only worsened as the days went by. Nobody knew why, but slowly, the light in his eyes started to dim. Ivan was dying and no one could save him.
On his deathbed, moments from the end, he realized a mortifying truth: despite his professional success, status, and wealth, he had, in fact, wasted his precious days and lived an unhappy life. In that moment of clarity, he is overwhelmed with terror and unbearable spiritual distress as he confronts the end of his life without having really lived.
It is said that Ivan Ilyich had to die for the reader to live. So here are three profound lessons on living I found as I journeyed with him to his death.
1. Authenticity is key to a meaningful life.
Chapter 2 opens with a punch to the gut.
Ivan Ilyich’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.
This isn’t Tolstoy criticizing the simple life. This is Tolstoy masterfully highlighting the dangers of conformity, of not being true to who we are. Ivan’s values, desires, and behaviors are primarily determined by the opinions and expectations of others — his social superiors, especially. He chooses his friends based on their social standing. He marries a woman he doesn’t love because it’s the “right” thing to do. And he lives beyond his means to impress strangers and please others. Ivan’s life is terrible because it is a life devoid of true freedom, of true individuality. Ivan has inherited his beliefs and has not used his own reason to direct his life. Ivan is a shell of a human.
Ivan’s life underscores the emptiness that results from prioritizing societal expectations and material success over genuine connection and personal values. Living authentically, aligned with our core beliefs, is crucial for a meaningful existence.
Which brings me to my next lesson.
2. Your desires aren’t your own
It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death.
— Ivan Ilyich
This is the moment Ivan realizes that social status is not the same as fulfillment. He feels that his desire to travel the prescribed road of society didn’t add to his life, but actually robbed him of life.
In René Girard’s book, “Deceit, Desire, and The Novel”, the French philosopher outlines his theory of mimetic desire, which states that many of our desires aren’t our own; in fact, they’re someone else’s, and in some cases, our desire is to be someone else.
Man is the creature who does not know what to desire, and he turns to others in order to make up his mind. We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires.
— René Girard
These mimetic desires, for most people, operate on an unconscious level. But as Carl Jung warned, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call in fate.” Ivan let his mimetic desires — social climbing, career advancement, adherence to social norms — run his life. He prioritized appearances, comfort, and status over genuine connection, self-reflection, and integrity. It was this pursuit of borrowed desires that led Ivan to spend his last days in a soul-crushing pain caused by the deep regret of a life unlived.
But mimetic desires aren’t the problem.
3. The problem is we lie to ourselves
If we know we’re mortal, why do we act as if we’re going to live forever?
I’m not sure I have an answer but one thing is clear: We simply refuse to think — really think — about our own mortality. Even if we study the subject of death, it is purely a subject of study. Nothing more. We don’t allow it to transform us, to breathe life into our every day. And when death visits our neighbor, we go through the usual motions of grief and sympathy but ultimately, we are relieved that it was someone else, not us. Our relationship with death is an avoidant one, and our preferred coping mechanism is self-deception.
When we lie to ourselves, we’re not hiding from ourselves. We’re hiding from death — or at least trying — secretly hoping she won’t find us, but we all know deep down she already has and is simply waiting for our turn.
If you dare to engage in some deep, perhaps uncomfortable, reflection, you’ll see through your own lies and realize, like our friend Ivan, that dying isn’t hard. Living is.
In an era where we’re not only encouraged to go out, get it, and thrive, but show the world we’re out there getting it and thriving; if we are not careful, this thriving can quickly become a constant striving where we never truly arrive — even when we reach the goals we set for ourselves, the goals society told us would make us happy.
Ivan’s story is a meditation on the human condition, challenging us to reflect on our own lives, inviting us to reevaluate what matters most. It is also a powerful reminder that we’re not going to live forever so we must stop living like it, and that the societal views of status and success can often be more soul-crushing than death itself.
Carl Jung is to psychology what Hemingway is to the written novel. Both revolutionized their respective fields.
Jung laid the foundation of modern psychology, contributed to dream analysis, and gave the world concepts like extrovert, introvert, persona, archetype, synchronicity, and collective unconscious.
But his final gift to humanity was the most valuable: a simple guide for living a happier life where the legendary psychologist distills a lifetime of wisdom in human happiness into 5 simple steps.
In 1960, during Jung’s final days, journalist Gordon Young asked the 85 year old psychologist, “What do you consider to be more or less basic factors making for happiness in the human mind?”
Jung responded with the following checklist.
1. Good physical and mental health
It’s difficult to be happy when we our bodies and hearts ache.
A healthy body and a healthy mind are essential for the steps to follow.
2. Good personal and intimate relationships
Of the four best life investments for a happier life, two of the best investments you can make on your journey to a better life are: family and friends (the other two are faith or philosophy and meaningful work; but more on that in a bit).
If you’re not investing in your relationships, you’re robbing yourself of quite a bit of happiness.
After all, love is happiness and happiness is love.
3. Seeing beauty in art and in nature
The Greeks believed beauty nourished the soul.
Jung believed that to live a happy life, you need a sense of aesthetics—the ability to appreciate natural and man-made beauty.
As a creative, you probably believe that, too.
4. Reasonable standards of living and satisfactory work
Satisfactory work provides a basic standard of living and protects mental health. In this way, employment and income are less about raising happiness and more about eliminating unhappiness.
But if you can go from satisfactory work to meaningful work, a happier version of you becomes possible.
The two elements that make work meaningful for most people are earned success (a sense of accomplishment) and service to others, which can be achieved in almost any job.
5. A philosophical or religious outlook that fosters resilience
Jung is not saying you need church to be happy. But, he believes everyone needs some sort of transcendent belief or higher purpose.
Secular philosophies, like Stoicism, can provide this benefit as well as proven by the stoic renaissance of the last few years.
Jung made this list to mark his 85th birthday — the last he celebrated.
By all measures, he made continuous progress toward happiness over his life, had a long and devoted marriage, died surrounded by the people he loved, and used his abilities in a meaningful way that served others. It’s safe to say Jung walked his talk and met death with a smile in his heart.
I’m convinced that the best way to read books is by writing on them.
A couple of months ago, I found a gem at my favorite bookstore — a copy of Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of one of my favorite books on creativity, The War of Art.
Turning Pro, priced at a measly $3.00, was collecting dust in the back of the store atop a discount pile. Naturally, I picked it up. Not because I’m obsessed with Pressfield or because I’m cheap, but because I’m obsessed with marginalia.
“In getting my books,” Edgar Allan Poe wrote in 1844, “I have always been solicitous of an ample margin; this is not so much through any love of the thing in itself, however agreeable, as for the facility it affords me of penciling in suggested thoughts, agreements, and differences of opinion, or brief critical comments in general.”
Marginalia—the act of underlining, asterisking, arguing, questioning, and even criticizing in the surrounding margins — has always been central to the serious reader. George Steiner defined an intellectual as “quite simply, a human being who has a pencil in his or her hand when reading a book.”
Mark Twain’s copy of Plutarch’s Lives
The marginalia in my $3.00 copy of “Turning Pro” isn’t just any marginalia. The margins display reactions, questions, and reflections that belong to someone I know well — a creative person, doing everything society tells them to except the thing they came to this planet to do — an amateur.
You probably know an amateur. Or maybe you are one.
Pressfield defines “amateur” as someone who dabbles in their creative work without fully committing to it. An amateur is someone who dreams but doesn’t take consistent action to realize those dreams.
Same, friend. Same.
Same, same.
Same.
I guarantee you that the person I inherited this copy from is well on their way to pro. Their marginalia is so raw and honest that I almost feel guilty reading it, much less sharing it. But it’s this level of honesty, engagement, and focus that is required to be great.
Good creative minds read. Great creative minds read with a pencil.
Writing in the margins offers a way to be in conversation. Often, we are in conversation with the text itself, with ideas that evoke something in us—recognition, anger, compassion, etc.
We also communicate with our future selves by recording ideas and writing down reminders for later use. Then, there’s the conversation we have with an author who might have lived hundreds of years ago. And maybe, if we’re lucky, we travel into the future to have a conversation that could potentially change someone’s life.
Marginalia helps us read, think, and write better. It also takes passive reading and turns it into an active two-way conversation (sometimes three or more). Finally, marginalia gives us permission to focus on what’s important, ignore the irrelevant, and make a mess—all required skills for turning pro.
Can knowing too much cripple our ability to communicate effectively with others?
Absolutely.
In 1990, Elizabeth Newton, a Stanford University graduate student studied a simple game in which she assigned people to one of two roles: “tapper” or “listener.” Tappers were asked to pick a well-known song, such as “Happy Birthday,” and tap out the rhythm on a table. The listeners had to guess the song.
Before the experiment started, Newton asked the tappers to predict how many of their songs would be guessed correctly. They said 50%. Over the course of Newton’s experiment, 120 songs were tapped out. Listeners guessed only three of the songs correctly: a success ratio of 2.5%. The tappers got their message across one time in 40, but they thought they would get it across one time in two. Why?
When a tappers tap, it’s impossible for them to avoid hearing the tune playing along to their taps. Meanwhile, all the listener hears is a weird Morse code — tock tock tock… tock, tock, tock…
Well-informed people tend to assume everyone has the same information, making it difficult to get their message across because they forget what is like to not know the things they know. They struggle to understand their audience’s mind. This phenomenon is known as The Curse of Knowledge
Lots of us have expertise in particular areas. Becoming an expert in something means that we become more and more fascinated by nuance and complexity. That’s when the curse of knowledge kicks in, and we start to forget what it’s like not to know what we know. — Chip and Dan Heath
While expertise in your field can increase your confidence in your ability to share your ideas, it can also hinder your ability to do it effectively. If you’re unaware of this knowledge gap between you and your audience, how you communicate your ideas might end up confusing your audience or worse, making them feel stupid, resulting in them tuning out and disengaging with your content.
You can avoid the negative effects of the curse of knowledge by questioning your assumptions of what you think your audience knows, empathizing with their knowledge, and giving them the tools they need to understand what it is you’re talking about. Here are five strategies you can use to bridge the knowledge gap and make you a more effective communicator:
Know your audience: Try to know how much they know. If you’re talking to a friend or colleague, assess the extent of their knowledge before starting your explanation. If you’re talking to potential customers, ask a few questions before pitching them.
Use simple language: Don’t hide behind jargon and complex terminology. Use simple language and clear examples to make your point easier to understand even with limited knowledge.
Tell stories: Stories can make information more relatable and memorable. Relate complex concepts to familiar experiences. Analogies and metaphors can also make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable. Stories organize facts. If you give people facts, they won’t remember the facts. But if you give them a story, they’ll remember the facts of the story.
Show, don’t tell. A picture can be worth a thousand words. Instead of a lengthy explanation, see if you can create a visual, a graph, or an illustration that conveys the same content in a more accessible way.
Get Feedback: Ask friends, family, or your own audience to review your content and provide honest feedback
There is an added benefit to simplifying your explanations: simplification reinforces your own knowledge. If you can’t explain an idea, concept, or process without using complicated jargon or abstract language, you probably don’t understand it as well as you think you do. Also, when you simplify, you create your own version of the material, which makes it easier to remember and form connections with other ideas.
Being aware of the curse of knowledge is the first step; actively trying to avoid it and improving your own learning process is the second. Actively fighting this curse will improve your communication skills and deepen your understanding and retention of information
This conscious effort to bridge the knowledge gap can help you build stronger connections, attract a wider audience, and cultivate an inclusive environment for more meaningful interactions — win, win, win.
This post is about the importance of newsletters for the creatives, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs.
Don’t think of this post as an “ultimate guide,” but think of it as a launchpad on how to get started and harness the power of newsletters in ways that feel authentic and aligned with your long-term goals.
Building a successful newsletter isn’t easy. You’ll make a ton of mistakes along the way — I most definitely did. But the process of publishing your ideas and building an audience is one of the most fulfilling and expansive acts of service there is.
This is the article I wish existed when I first started building my newsletter. My hope is that by the end of it, you’ll have a clear plan of action on how to start and grow a newsletter successfully in 2025 (and for many years to come!).
Is starting a newsletter worth it?
The honest answer is … it depends.
If you hate writing and have no interest in sharing your ideas, building an audience, or starting a business, I wouldn’t recommend starting one. Keep doing what you’re doing. Optimize for your own joy.
But if you enjoy (or are curious about) writing and want a creative outlet without the pressure of monetizing it, a newsletter can be a great way to keep you consistent and accountable with your writing. And if you do it right, this new creative venture can open up opportunities for connection, personal and creative growth, and who knows? Maybe you’ll get to make a few bucks along the way.
Now, if your goal is to turn your writing and ideas into a source of income or if you have (or want to have) a successful business, building a newsletter is a must.
I can’t tell you whether starting a newsletter is for you or not. But what I can tell you is that if you’re seeing a gap in the market with content that will bring value to others, and you believe you have the knowledge, passion, and care — emphasis on care — to deliver that value better than anyone else, then starting a newsletter is 1000% worth it. I would even go as far as saying that it is your duty to share your knowledge and fill that gap.
How to start a newsletter in 2025
Even though building a successful newsletter isn’t easy, starting one has never been easier. I’ve started a handful of newsletters and have gone from idea to launch in a couple of days. Platforms like Substack, Beehiiv, and Kit make the process frictionless. But with so many options and tools available, it can feel overwhelming.
The key is to keep it simple, focus on high-quality content, and stay consistent. If you do that and follow the steps below, you’ll be well on your way to creating a newsletter people love.
1. Have a damn good idea
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Having a good idea is key for the success of your newsletter. If people don’t find your newsletter informative, inspiring, or entertaining, they’re not going to stay subscribed for a long time or worst, they won’t subscribe at all.
Retention is the name of the game. The longer someone stays a subscriber, the more likely they are to share your emails to their friends and colleagues. This is not only a good indicator that you’re producing something of value, but it also creates a powerful growth loop for your newsletter — word of mouth.
Your newsletter should be a gift to your audience. It should also be a gift to yourself.
That’s precisely what my newsletter (and this blog) is. It’s for me. It’s my “diary” of my favorite thing — writing, creativity, marketing, psychology. It’s what’s kept me going. It’s what I love. And because of that, it’s a joy to make.
The best advice I can give your for coming up with a damn good idea for your newsletter is: find a content topic or idea YOU would subscribe to. Be it cat memes, curated content (from business to entertainment to food), educational insights from your career, news about topics that are important to you, and so on. If there’s something you wish was out there, it means there’s a gap somewhere in the market. And you have an opportunity to fill that gap and give your gift to others.
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. — Pablo Picasso
Mark Manson wrote “The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F*uck” for himself. He thought most self-help books were shit so he wrote the book he had to read. That book went on to sell over 15 million copies and spent 307 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list.
Moral of the story? Create something you want to subscribe to.
2. Choose a platform
It doesn’t have to be for life. That’s the beauty of newsletters. Unlike social media platforms, if you get sick of one platform, you can pick up your list and move it somewhere else.
Start with a user-friendly tool like Kit (which is what I use), Beehiiv, or Substack. Don’t overthink it. The goal is to get it up and running as quickly as possible. Once you have your platform, create a simple landing page to make it easy for people to subscribe with a short description of what they’ll get. You can always change all of this later.
3. Commit to a publishing cadence
Burnout from the content hamster wheel is a real thing. I’ve come close to it and I’ve seen dozens of creators quit because of it. So it’s important to create a publishing cadence you can keep up with.
If you’ve never started a newsletter before, I would not recommend sending emails daily. Commit to sending out emails monthly but push yourself to a bi-weekly cadence (twice a month). I think weekly emails is the sweet spot, though. It doesn’t overwhelm your audience, gives you enough time to produce quality, and keeps you front of mind.
From the beginning, I started with weekly — and it’s been a cadence I’ve been able to keep up with. The ultimate goal is to publish regularly and stay consistent.
4. Write to one reader
Crowds are not gathering around a single screen to read your email. A newsletter isn’t a one to many communication medium. It’s one to one. That’s why I love them. In a disconnected world, they’re intimate.
Write to one reader. This will make your tone more conversational and engaging. It will help you develop your personal voice. And guess what? There’s no competition for your personal voice. It’s easy to copy a newsletter model. It’s impossible to replicate a personality.
Also, encourage feedback by asking your readers to reply, share, or suggest topics — it builds trust, connection, and helps you improve. Two birds, one stone.
5. Make a mess
You won’t know what you like if you don’t experiment and get messy. Your newsletter is more than a platform for self-expression; it’s also a platform for self-discovery. Mix in personal stories, practical tips, curated resources, or interviews and see what you like writing that resonates with your readers. I like to call that sweet spot between what you like writing about and what your audience enjoys reading Content-Market Fit. When you achieve content-market fit, your newsletter will grow organically and steadily. Plus, it’ll be a joy to write. And you know what they say, if it was fun to write, it’ll be fun to read.
As you send more emails, over time you’ll start to gain an intuition for what your audience cares about. Two years in, and I know what topics do the best, what times are the best to send my newsletter, and what types of subject lines get the best open rates.
But this information doesn’t always translate to a framework others can follow. You need to develop your own intuition and framework for success, and this only happens by sending a lot of emails, trying new thing, making a mess.
Whether you write 25 or 250 editions, writing online has the power to change your life. It sharpens your thinking, builds meaningful connections, and creates a lasting impact that grows over time.
The tools and technology you use matter little when creating newsletters. What matters most is the ideas you’re writing about and the love and care behind those ideas. Your guiding question should always be: Am I writing emails that I would want to open and read? When the answer is no longer “yes,” that’s your sign to pivot, get curious, and make another mess.
If you’re serious about sharing your ideas, building a media company, or making money from writing online, starting a newsletter is one of the best things you can do for yourself and the people you’re dying to help.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you’re starting (or already started) your newsletter, I’m sending you the best vibes for your newsletter!
If you have any lingering or specific questions feel free to shoot me an email. Or if you already have a newsletter, I’d love to check it out!
Now go out there and write the newsletter you want to see in the world!
I moved to the United States when I was 13 years old without knowing how to put together a sentence. I spent my first two years in High School taking ELD classes. ELD stands for English Language Development. These are classes designed specifically for English language learners to develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English. For half of my high school experience, I had the vocabulary of a toddler.
It wasn’t until my junior year that I started taking “regular” English classes. For some reason, my counselor thought it’d be a good idea to enroll me in AP Literature. By the time the year ended, I had missed 28 classes. The class was just way too advanced for me. Plus, I didn’t see the value in reading the classics, much less writing about them. I could barely hold a conversation.
So how did I fall in love with writing?
I started writing because my therapist couldn’t keep up. I’m serious. I started writing as a way to cope, process my emotions, and get to know myself on a deeper level. I started writing because I felt intellectually isolated. I’ve always loved big ideas and philosophy, but had nobody to talk about them with. I was alone, overstimulated, and unfulfilled.
I started writing out of necessity — survival almost.
So I started writing an email newsletter. First to a few close friends, then, through word of mouth, to a few strangers. I wrote to no more than 20 people for over a year. But every week, despite my imposter syndrome, fear, and self-loathing, I hit publish, and with each article, my writing and my life got a little better.
For the first time in my life, I made use of all the information I consumed. I started to make new friends who shared my obsession with ideas, creativity, and building a digital presence. Every article I published became a magnet for opportunities I didn’t know were possible. Some notable brands in the creator space started reaching out asking to work with me, and so did other aspiring writers, educators, and creators. It was both thrilling and terrifying, to realize my words had the power to connect with others and open doors to worlds I didn’t know existed.
It’s only been two years since I took the plunge and committed to publishing my ideas online, but I can confidently say it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made. The 60 to 90 minutes (depending on the day) I spend writing every morning is my most rewarding habit and the highlight of my day. It’s helped me in every aspect of my life and has shown me that I can succeed by bringing more of myself into my work — and so can you.
I thought the writer’s path was only reserved for novelists, essayists, or journalists. That’s no longer true. Anybody can walk it now — including you.
My life now revolves around publishing my ideas online and helping others do the same. My writing has reached dozens of millions of people, has landed me opportunities beyond anything I could have imagined, and has given me a sense of confidence and fulfillment I spent 30 years seeking. I know 13 year old me is probably in disbelief that I’m doing this. I also know that he’s extremely proud.
In this not-so-short guide, I’ve distilled the most important principles, insights, and tips I’ve learned over the course of my time writing online and building an audience so you can do the same.
The game of online writing rewards what I like to call “high quantity quality.” The internet rewards people who publish a lot of good stuff. Think of writing online as going to a nightclub. Frequency is the cover charge — how you get in — but quality is how you have the night of your life. If your ideas resonate and help people, you’re guaranteed a spot in VIP. If you can consistently publish good work, you’ll gain an audience, cultivate a strong reputation, and build bridges to people and places beyond your wildest dreams.
This guide will help you do just that. By the end of this guide, you’ll have not just the tools to get started but a roadmap to do it well.
Ready to learn what it takes to become a successful online writer? Let’s get it!
The Antidote for Writer’s Block: Write From Abundance
There’s nothing more frustrating than staring at a blinking cursor on a blank page, especially when ideas swarm you when you’re away from your desk. I experienced this frustration daily. I had good ideas, but every time I’d sit down to write, I’d just stare at my screen for hours, struggling to get a sentence out. It felt like I was 13 again. It pissed me off.
What I didn’t know is that I was making a big mistake that was causing my writer’s block. I was trying to write from scratch. Fortunately, I found the remedy: writing from abundance.
To write from abundance, I had to build a bank of inspiration. I started writing down my realizations, collecting the best quotes I found, jotting down ideas that resonated. I had to build a capture habit
Writing from abundance is the art of collecting ideas so you always have a starting point. It’s all about living an inspired life, and inspiration is everywhere — articles, books, dinner parties, group chats, and shower thoughts. If you capture ideas as they arise, you won’t have to pray for the muse to pay you a visit when it’s time to write.
Modern writing is a lot like making maple syrup. To make maple syrup, maple trees are tapped by drilling holes into their trunks and collecting the sap, which is processed by heating to evaporate much of the water, leaving the concentrated syrup. It takes about 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Your notes and captured ideas are the sap for your writing.
To effectively write from abundance you need three things:
A high-quality information diet
A capture habit
A note-taking system
1. Your Information Diet
The internet is the best thing to happen for the human mind since Alexandria, but it is widely misused. Most people don’t use the internet to learn. They use it to distract themselves and get high on cheap dopamine. Neither of which are effective strategies for generating better ideas.
There is a concept in computer science that can be applied to many areas of our lives, especially writing: garbage in, garbage out (GIGO). A friend of mine used to be the head chef at a restaurant I love. When my girlfriend at the time asked him what his secret was for making delicious meals, he replied, “high-quality ingredients.” The smirk on his face let me know he meant it. A dish can only be as good as its ingredients. Similarly, your input — experiences, conversations, and information — are the raw ingredients for your writing. The secret to better output is better input.
If you know the quality of your information diet is lacking, you need to upgrade it by curating what you consume.
Pay attention to these three content forms:
Short-form: I’m not a fan of social media as a learning tool or source of quality information, but I’d be lying if I said it’s not a great discovery tool. Unfollow celebrities, high school friends you never talk to, and anyone else who does not share your interests or stimulates your heart and intellect. Instead, replace them with accounts that make you smarter and bring you joy.
Medium-form: Subscribe to magazines, blogs, YouTube channels, and newsletters that post timeless ideas. Read essays, articles, and speeches that have stood the test of time.
Long-form: Read more books. Start a book club with your friends or find one online. Read the classics. Watch the classics — films, documentaries, TV series. Enroll in courses (in-person or online), watch lectures, create your own syllabus.
Own your learning.
2. The Capture Habit
Now that you’ve turned down the noise and turned up the signal to make sure your input is high-quality, you need a way to harness it. If you think reading 52 books a year so you can brag to your friends or strangers on the internet is enough, it’s not. You need to save the best parts of what you read. Capture ideas as you read, and when you sit down to write, your essays will practically write themselves.
Good notes are central to my writing process. Writing without them is like trying to drive a car with no gas. It just ain’t happening. Because I’m diligent about taking notes, I rarely need to start research from scratch when writing a new article. Instead, I pull from ideas I’ve already captured. All my notes act as intellectual building blocks for future pieces. By the time I sit down to write about a topic, I’ve already done most of the research.
A bit of proactivity goes a long way. You already consume a ton of media, have shower thoughts, and share ideas with your friends. When you practice the habit of capturing what’s already happening, you’ll find that you have all the material you need to start writing.
CAPTUREOTHERPEOPLE’SIDEAS
Most people keep hundreds of tabs open on their browser because they’re afraid to lose the valuable articles they intend to read (but never do). I used to be that person. Luckily, I found read-it-later apps.
I rarely read articles on my browser. When I come across an interesting article, I save it to an app that automatically downloads it to my phone so I can read it later. This is what I do instead of scrolling through social media when I’m bored (or taking a poop). I read articles. Saving articles this way gets me out of a reactivity loop, where I read things immediately after I find them. I want all aspects of my life to be intentional, including my reading. This process also acts as a filter for my reading. When I save articles to read later, I raise the bar for what deserves my attention. With read-it-later apps, you have dozens of articles to choose from so you allocate your time and attention to the best ones.
Readwise — my favorite read-it-later app
Read-it-later apps will also help you see how many ideas you consume not because they’re high-quality or important, but because they’re marketed well.
CAPTUREYOUROWNIDEAS
If you’re anything like most people, you probably forget ideas — constantly. Remember that insight you had from a conversation with your best friend, or that breakthrough in therapy a few weeks ago? Yeah, me neither.
The human mind is a powerful idea-generating machine, but it’s horrible at storing them.
Many of your best ideas will come when you’re away from your computer — while shopping, in the car, or on a walk. Ideas are fleeting. That’s why so many of history’s greatest creative minds always carried a notebook. I do the same. Whenever I have an important idea, insight, or experience I jot it down as soon as possible.
My pocket notebook
Note-taking is the closest thing we have to time travel. The Pulitzer prize winning rapper, Kendrick Lamar, attributes his world-renowned lyricism and storytelling to his note-taking process. In his famous conversation with Rick Rubin, he said: “I have to write them down. and then months later, I have to find that same emotion … I dig deep to see what triggered the idea… It comes back because I have key words that bring me back to the exact emotion which drew the inspiration.” Humans are better at writing down events than remembering them.
Writing down your observations makes you more observant; the act of recording details forces you to pay closer attention to the world around you. Similarly, writing down your insights makes you more insightful. Once you commit to capturing your ideas, your brain will naturally generate more of them. Ask any photographer. They’ll tell you every moment as a photo opportunity, which is why they carry their cameras everywhere they go. As a writer, you need to carry your notebook — or preferred capture tool — everywhere you go.
3. Build a Note-Taking System
How many ideas have you written down only to never see them again? If you’re anything like me, the answer is “too many.” The brain is good at making connections, but terrible at remembering details. You know what’s good at remembering things, though? Computers. Note-taking works best when your ideas are saved in a centralized location that contains your and others’ best ideas. Computers help you store ideas and make it easy for you to find them. It’s a win-win.
I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of hours building dozens of note-taking systems. There are hundreds of YouTube videos and articles promising the perfect note-taking system for Notion, Evernote, Obsidian, Roam, Amplenote, Kortex, or my personal favorite, Tana. But here’s the truth: there isn’t a perfect note-taking system. The only perfect system is the one that works for you — the one that gets you writing.
Again, it doesn’t matter which tool you use. And the point isn’t to have a perfect system. The point of taking notes is to get you (and keep you) writing.
Don’t be like me. Don’t waste your time building complex or pretty looking systems. Just keep your notes in one place, revisit them often, make connections, and write.
COLLECTTHEDOTS
Many of history’s greatest minds, including Leonardo Da Vinci, kept a commonplace book — a central place where you save ideas, quotes, epiphanies, photos, drawings, and whatever else you want to remember. Marcus Aurelius, who is arguably the greatest Roman emperor to have ever lived, used his commonplace book to write Meditations; Virginia Woolf kept one, so did Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, and Langston Hughes.
Since ideas appear when you least expect them, capturing them should be almost automatic. It shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds to jot an idea now. The notes app on your phone or a pocket notebook should be more than enough. Just make sure you transfer those ideas to your note-taking system — ideally by the end of the day. There, you can briefly expand on the idea by adding context or relevant details.
Taking notes while reading is equally important for connecting ideas. For your digital reads — Kindle, Instapaper, Blogs, Emails, Tweets — Readwise is the most elegant solution. Everytime you highlight an interesting idea, it’ll shoot it to your highlights library where they’ll live until your bones return to the earth or the internet burns down, whichever comes first. You can also tag your highlights, making finding and connecting ideas breezy. Oh, and you can sync Readwise to your note-taking system so your quotes pull automatically. It’s honestly one of my favorite apps.
Over time, you’ll have developed a personal library of the best, most interesting ideas you’ve ever seen. All you have to do is (1) capture ideas, and (2) make sure those ideas end up in the same place.
My Readwise Library
CONNECTTHEDOTS
Michelangelo once said: “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” The writer who writes from abundance is less like a painter and more like a sculptor.
Let me explain.
I start my essays in split-screen mode. On the left, I have my marble block (my captured notes). On the right, I have my chisel (my blank document). To gain creative momentum, I’ll run a few searches through my note-taking system, and copy & paste the best stuff onto my blank page. As ideas fill the page, patterns emerge and begin to shape the piece. At this point, most of the time, all I have to do is fill in the gaps, add transitions, and polish the prose until it portrays precisely what I’m trying to communicate to the reader. Just as Michelangelo chiseled away the excess stone to reveal the masterpiece within, when I write from abundance, I refine and connect my notes to uncover the core message I want to convey.
We read to collect the dots. We write to connect them.
NOTE: It’s worth spending some time designing a note-taking system. Notice I said designing and not building. You will build the system as you engage with it. This is how you build systems that work for you. And remember, your system doesn’t have to be perfect — mine isn’t. The purpose of your system is to inspire and mobilize you when you’re sitting in front of the blinking cursor and get you writing by serving you the best ideas you’ve ever had.
4. Test Your Ideas
Writing doesn’t have to be a lonesome pursuit. In fact, the best writing is collaborative. Conversation makes you a better writer by helping you identify high-potential ideas and tweak their delivery until they’re accurate representations of your best thinking and resonate with your readers. My ideas reached new levels once I started talking about them.
This isn’t anything new. Many sacred texts, like the Bible, the Vedas and the Quran, were spoken long before they were written. Most Greek tragedies were also spoken before being written down. Even Ralph Waldo Emerson developed his famous essays through public lectures. These examples illustrate how collaboration and conversation can shape and refine even the most profound works.
Improvement comes from feedback. This is true in many areas of society — from software to relationships. When you’re too close to an idea, it’s hard to see the full picture — you develop blindspots. While trusting your taste is important in the creative process, testing your taste is equally important. Instead of assuming what’s good and committing hours to writing about it, test it by talking about it.
The best comedians, like Chris Rock, are always testing ideas. He once said: “When I start a tour, it’s not like I start out in arenas. Before this last tour, I performed in this place in New Brunswick called the Stress Factory. I did about 40 or 50 shows getting ready for the tour.”
The Netflix special you see is the result of dozens, if not hundreds, of conversations. The jokes have been tested and refined many times. So when you sit down to watch the latest stand-up special, you don’t get the jokes that bombed. You get the crème de la crème.
I’m not a comedian, and my years as a professional lecturer are behind me. But as it turns out you don’t have to be either to test your ideas. One of my favorite ways to test my ideas is with my girlfriend and friends. If an idea surprises them or resonates, it’s probably good. But if they look bored or confused, I set it aside — maybe I communicated it poorly or the idea needs refinement.
TESTINGYOURIDEASATSCALE
Once an idea resonates with your immediate circle, it’s time to test it with readers online. The gift of the internet makes it easy to be in constant conversation with people around the world who can engage with and respond to your ideas. The internet is the perfect feedback loop.
I’ve been working in tech for the last 5 years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned is that great products are the result of a ton of feedback. The same is true for writing. Conversations with readers sharpen your ideas and free you from the curse of knowledge. When you publish your ideas online, the internet’s built-in feedback loop shines a light on your gaps, gives you insight into your readers’ needs, and helps you generate better ideas to write about.
The best way to test out half-baked (but still polished) ideas are text-based social platforms like Twitter, Threads, LinkedIn and email. My favorite, however, is asking questions directly to readers. When done right, the responses guide your thinking and lead you to discover ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise.
The sooner you can get readers to give you feedback, the sooner you’ll create remarkable, impactful, and memorable work.
4. Write in Public
THEFEAROFPUTTINGYOURSELFOUTTHERE
You’ve spent months, if not years, thinking about a topic. You’ve captured your ideas, organized them, developed and tested them. You’ve blocked off your calendar to edit them and have spent hours over every sentence until there’s nothing left to change. The time to hit publish is finally here. You freeze. Doubt begins to occupy your every cell. Your imposter syndrome is at an all time high, but somehow, someway you find the courage to click publish.
You’re clueless about what’s next. Deep down, you want your work to spread like wildfire. Maybe you’ll get a book deal, or The New York Times will find your article and ask you to write for them. Actually, that’s not realistic. “Ok, maybe a few likes,” you think. Or at least a couple of kind replies. One text from a friend. You refresh the page, again and again, double, triple, quadruple-checking your inbox. Nothing. Your heart breaks. Your stomach ties up in knots. You feel invisible.
This section is all about overcoming that feeling of being invisible. Publishing is just the price you pay to get into the game. You still have to pay to stay in it and win. Here are the methods to spread your ideas, attract more eyeballs, and grow an audience that loves your work as much as you do.
MARKETINGFORPEOPLEWHOHATEMARKETING
Jesus of Nazareth invented viral marketing long before tech bros in Palo Alto ever touched a computer. The 12 disciples were the OG brand evangelists. Jesus turned 12 true fans into 2.4 billion followers, and he did this without paid ads, dance challenges, or viral hooks — just patience, value, and resonance. While creators today might not be able to walk on water or heal the blind, the principles of building a devoted audience remain the same.
Building an audience takes time. It’s a slow process, and that’s what makes having an audience so powerful. If building an audience was quick and easy, it wouldn’t be valuable. It’s crucial you don’t confuse having an audience with having attention. You can buy attention, but you can’t buy trust. Trust has to be earned.
Many social media influencers have attention — a lot of it — hundreds of thousands of followers, but that doesn’t mean they have an audience. An audience isn’t the number of people who know your name. It’s the number of people you can contact at any time without relying on social media platforms or unpredictable algorithms.
So, how do you build an audience?
The work begins with attracting people on public platforms or what I like to refer to as rented platforms — Twitter, Threads, Reddit. These platforms are governed by algorithms that divide their millions of users into tiny subcultures with shared interests — commonly known as “niches.”
These rented platforms are great in the sense that they provide you with free reach, but they’re horrible in creating an environment that allows you to make meaningful connections with your readers. Plus, they can kick you off the platform at any time, limit your reach, and since they own your data, you can’t download your followers and move them over to a different network.
“Building an audience on a public platform is like building a castle out of sand.”— Naval
One second, you have a nice, big number of followers to show your friends. Next, you’ve been kicked off your favorite platform with nothing to show for all your hard work.
Find attention on public platforms. Build your audience in private ones.
James Clear, author of the worldwide bestseller Atomic Habits, has an audience of over 3,000,000 readers who he can contact at any time. How did he do it? He grew his audience on the back of Google, Instagram, and Twitter and converted them into email subscribers. He found attention on public platforms and built relationships on a private one.
Unfortunately, you can’t launch a random blog or a no-name newsletter and expect people to magically find it. Your first task in building an audience is identifying the places on the internet where your readers like to hang out. You have two options:
Big Social Networks: Places like Twitter, Threads, and Reddit where millions of people can learn about niche topics or subscribe to specific sub-communities.
Small Forums: If you’re not down with massive networks, you can find intimate public spaces where like-minded people come together. This could be through industry-specific forums, Slack, or Discord. These platforms won’t give you the reach and scale of big social networks, but they’re a great way to find people who share your interests.
NOTE: Resist the temptation to build an audience on multiple platforms at once. You’ll get overwhelmed or worse, burn out. It’s ok to initially experiment with a few, but you should go all-in on one of them.
ADDVALUE (INPUBLIC)
Platforms reward users who make the platform a better place. They reward good actors and punish the bad ones. If you want to attract the right audience, you need to be a good actor.
As Harry Dry, the founder of Marketing Examples wrote: “The best self-promoters aren’t self-promoters. They take the time to become a genuine member of each community. Share others’ content. Write detailed comments. Make friends.” Good actors are simply people who are dying to help.
Most people use people to grow on social media. My advice to you is use social media to grow on people. Audiences aren’t built on hustle, clickbait, or viral trends. They’re built on empathy. Focus on serving your target audience as best as you can and they’ll return the favor tenfold.
If you do this well enough (and for long enough), you will start attracting more and more attention, but that doesn’t mean you have an audience. Your next step is to make it easy for people to engage with your work more deeply. You need to get these eyeballs off the rented platform and onto your own, private digital home.
5. Build in Private
GETTINGSTARTED
Start with a personal website that is simple but distinct. I’ve built a number of personal sites, and after many iterations I landed on this simple, text-first layout. The best part? It costs me $5 a month to run. Not too shabby.
Remember: what matters most is writing and publishing.
With the rise of platforms like Substack and Beehiiv, you might be wondering: “Do you even need a website anymore?”
Yes.
Your website is your online resume, business card, store, portfolio, and whatever else you want to make it. It is a reflection of you. Platforms like Substack lack personality. And without personality, it’s harder to build trust.
If you want to get started with a blog-like newsletter platform like the ones above, go for it. Just make sure to save a few dollars for building a website as soon as you can.
Oh, and for the love of God, please get a custom domain. Mine cost me $3 after tax. If you aren’t willing to invest in yourself, why should anyone else?
STARTANEMAILNEWSLETTER
Every writer needs an email list.
Having people visit your website just isn’t enough. The goal is to turn as many passing visitors into email subscribers. If you’re posting on rented platforms without directing people to your owned platforms, you’re leaving cash, connections, and a plethora of opportunities on the table. Online relationships are no different than real-world relationships. They are built on consistency. If someone isn’t on your email list, they either have to seek you out directly, or you better pray to the algorithm gods they find you again.
I used to be part of the “email is dead” club. Luckily, I came to my senses. Email was here long before social media platforms, and will be here long after they’re gone. Tech companies know this. Why do you think you need an email to create an account? Email, to this day, is the best tool to communicate — one-to-one and at scale.
When I send a newsletter to my email list, I reach every single person on that list. I don’t have to worry about pleasing algorithms or chasing silly trends. That’s because when you send enough quality emails, you don’t just have an email list. You have a group of people who trust you, care about what you have to say, and have chosen to hear from you consistently and indefinitely.
6. The Craft of Writing
While good marketing is key in growing an audience, even the best marketing can’t make up for bad writing. Writing well is crucial for attracting eyes, building trust, and making sure your ideas not only spread but stick.
Unfortunately, the craft of writing is beyond the scope of this guide. However, I’ll leave you with some of the best books on writing I’ve ever read and a couple of articles I’ve written to help you become a better scribbler.
There are many ways to get started writing online. Your system won’t look like mine — it shouldn’t. So think of this guide as a launchpad, not a set of rules you need to follow to a tee. My intention for the advice in this guide has been for it to be broad enough to be widely applicable, but specific enough to be practical.
Your next step depends on your experience.
If you’re a beginner who’s just starting out:
Build your system: Learn to write from abundance, test your ideas, and write in public. Don’t get caught in complexity until you’re doing those three things consistently. You don’t need fancy websites, expensive courses, or “perfect” note-taking systems. Don’t stress about your niche either. That’ll come with time and output.
Develop a writing routine: Set up a note-taking system so you can start capturing ideas and turn them into essays. I recommend you aim to publish weekly. To achieve that, you’ll likely want to set aside 30-60 minutes every day to get some writing done. Also, make sure you unplug, go for a walk, and give your mind time to wander. Creativity needs space to breathe.
Learn to see: If your ideas are boring, get a life. If you have a life and your ideas are still boring, you’re not paying attention. Writing isn’t some creative or intellectual pursuit separate from your life. Writing is the transcribing of your life.
Most importantly, take what resonates and leave what doesn’t. And write. It’s easy to spend your time learning about writing and not writing. Don’t forget what’s actually important: writing and publishing.
If you’re an intermediate writer with some pieces under your belt:
Stay consistent: Write a lot. Publish a lot. Put yourself on deadlines to make sure you stay in the process. Nourish your mind and heart with high-quality reading, deep conversations, travel, and silence.
Build your audience: Pick one social platform and promote your work. Learn the basics of marketing and copywriting. Have an email list. Collaborate with other writers to get exposure to their audience. Be a good actor.
Develop a niche: If you publish dozens of essays, two things will happen: (1) the topic you love will become evident, and (2) you’ll start to develop content-market fit — content your audience loves to consume and you love to create. Both of these will help you build authority, credibility, and expertise.
If you’re an advanced writer with a ton of published work and a massive audience:
Holla at me: I’d love to learn from you. But in case you haven’t …
Turn your words into cash: Start a business, grow your existing one, launch a paid newsletter, find a better job. Become the go-to person in your niche, field, or industry and start getting paid for your ideas.
The world we live in is a different world. Writing isn’t a path reserved for journalists and professional authors. Today, anybody can do it, including you.
I’ve been writing online for the past five years, but a little over a year ago I committed to publishing weekly. This single decision completely changed my life.
What started out as a way to document my curiosities, learnings, and insights quickly opened a floodgate of opportunities, improved my confidence, and became another revenue stream.
In an era of TikToks, Reels, and AI-generated content, you may feel like text-based content is dead, but that’s exactly what big social media companies want you to believe and it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Writing online is one of the best — if not the best — uses of your intellectual, emotional, and creative energy.
The power of writing online
The person who can put together words that evoke emotion, facilitate insight, and entertain an audience has a huge competitive advantage in today’s digital marketplace for writing is the simplest yet most impactful way to share ideas. It is persuasion at scale. But writing is more than a tool for sharing ideas. It’s also a powerful tool for generating them — the more you write, the more ideas you produce.
And we’re just scratching the surface.
If you’re thinking about getting started or are experiencing self-doubt, here are 10 damn good reasons why you should start writing online today.
Writing online is free. You don’t need to spend a ton of money on fancy gear or software. You don’t even need a computer. You can start publishing from your phone.
Writing is portable. You can literally write anywhere — on your phone, laptop, or even a napkin. Writing gives you the ultimate creative freedom.
Writing online connects. It links your thinking with others’, allowing your thoughts to become a part of the world wide web of ideas. It also makes your ideas discoverable in niche communities, helping you connect with like-minded people — friends, colleagues, business partners, clients, employers. Where social platforms connect you with people from your past, writing online connects you with people from your future.
Writing online is perfect for introverts looking to build a brand or establish authority. You don’t have to show your face or talk in front of a camera. Or if you’re hot like me, it’s a way to make sure people like you for your ideas, not your looks.
Writing helps you think better. Writing is thinking on paper. When you write you create the distance you need to think clearly about an argument or what you think you know. Writing forces you to slow down and think deeply. You don’t know what you know until you write about it.
Build a direct connection with your audience. If you’re building an audience by simply posting on social media, you’re at risk. Social media algorithms can be unpredictable, and you’re always at the mercy of the platform. Writing online, through a newsletter or a blog, helps you cut through the noise and lets you nurture a genuine relationship with your readers. You have a direct line to them, ensuring your message reaches them consistently. This fosters a deeper connection and allows you to build trust over time.
Writing online is a perfect feedback loop. Online writers are rewarded with instant feedback in the form of shares and replies. These fast feedback loops are powerful ways to accelerate your learning (and improve your writing).
Writing is a skill multiplier. Like I mentioned before, writing helps you think and learn better. It can also help you craft better emails, presentations, and documentation. Not to mention, it builds credibility and expertise.
Writing creates focus in a distracted world. In a time of shortened attention spans, we’ve gone from reasoned thinkers to reactive thinkers. Writing gives you the time and space you need to play with ideas, think about your problems, and engage with them long enough to develop a deeper understanding.
Writing is good for your mental health and personal development. Writing is more than a tool for self-expression; it’s also a tool for self-discovery. The secret to good writing is to strip each sentence to its essence. Similarly, writing can help you strip away parts of you that aren’t you or no longer serve you. It can also help you uncover parts of yourself you didn’t know existed, heal invisible wounds, and accelerate your healing and growth.
“If you wish you would take something more seriously, do it publicly… Social pressure forces you to up your game.” — James Clear
Publishing a solid piece of writing can change your life because the internet rewards people who think well. Each post is an advertisement for the kinds of people and opportunities you want to attract. Think about it. By jotting down your ideas and hitting publish, you can build your network, improve your thinking, and create opportunities for yourself. Name another creative act that offers a better return on investment.
Writing is good, but writing online is better. It’s like having people over. You have to clean and make sure you have enough food, snacks, and drinks for everyone to feel comfortable and enjoy themselves. Writing online is no different. You have to write and re-write to make sure your ideas are clear and concise and if writing is thinking, then rewriting is rethinking. This process of crafting and refining not only makes you a better writer, but it encourages deeper inquiry, self-reflection, and ultimately, personal growth.
