writing-diary-phrase

A simple but powerful approach to note taking

If you want to stay five steps ahead, get fluent in the small phrases that shift entire strategies.

I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a...

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There are many things I love about Mark Twain. His wit, humour, and sarcastic tone are at the top of the list. It’s almost as if he hitched a ride on the back of Halley’s Comet when it arrived in…

A link to every page on the site, with an indication of whether or not you have visited it.

Oops, I'm writing a textbook.

How to position, design, and optimize your Substack publication for fast growth.

What is Atomic Note-Taking? Atomic note-taking is a method of organizing information into...

CAUTION: Monoid fever is contagious.

Four timeless lessons on writing well from Steven Pinker’s ‘The Sense of Style’

A study of humanity’s most brilliant, collected wisdom in 27 categories, backed by data and with real sources

Struggling with how to make an article, email, or proposal compelling? Focusing on where you put information delivers a bigger payoff than what you say.

Part 1: The thought behind the thought

Claude Fredericks, a Bennington classics professor, knew Anaïs Nin and James Merrill, and taught Donna Tartt. He kept a journal for eight decades, and persuaded many in his orbit that he was writing a titanic masterpiece. Did he?

Note that this category is for phrases of the English language, not just phrases that pertain to the United Kingdom or British people.

What makes a great technical blog

I’m often asked to edit friends’ or coworkers’ writing, anything from emails to short stories to documentation. Recently, someone asked me how I edit. What am I looking for? How do I know what changes to make? That made me stop and think about what I’ve been doing semi-instinctually.

Inspirational Street Art from NYC. The BE MIGHTY Project spreads quotes of inspiration, motivation and wisdom across NYC sign posts and beyond by posting paper flyers with 10 tabs each flyer all with different quotes.

Inspirational Street Art from NYC. The BE MIGHTY Project spreads quotes of inspiration, motivation and wisdom across NYC sign posts and beyond by posting paper flyers with 10 tabs each flyer all with different quotes.

In case you haven’t seen them yet, I want to call your attention to the latest attack on the scientific method: positionality statements, in which authors attach totally irrelevant personal information to their scientific manuscripts. Typical of the illogic of our schizophrenic age, this is occurring at the same time that the NSF

Haunted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, these visualisations of proverbs look backward to uncertain origins.