Writing With Purpose
Welcome back to another episode! Last week drifted into a bit of philosophy plus some travel plans, so this week I wanted to talk a bit about writing. Also thank you to those that got in touch after the last episode with their perspectives and reading recommendations, I'm still going through them and it's very much appreciated! Lets get into it.
Image in a newsletter?! Technologia! Here's a sunny day in Bansko, Bulgaria.
The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
As a recovering academic I have a strange fascination with writing in that it's one of the most powerful skills you can develop. It can be used to express yourself, to educate, to persuade, but increasingly it's used to manipulate, to coerce, to incite action in support of an author's goals. Good writing (even in technical documents) to me is like any art form, it should be smooth to read, relaxing, and enjoyable. This is especially true if the subject matter is challenging or the ideas are complex.
Great writing on the other hand should be engrossing, it should capture and command your attention, as to stop reading would be to break its effects, whatever they might be. To borrow a niche reference from the Harry Potter universe, great writing should feel like the Imperius curse, entrapping the reader until the entire text is complete.
However, great writing needs a purpose. This newsletter for example is a long-running update on my journey through life outside of the corporate world. I'm not trying to compel you to act or to necessarily teach you anything. Instead I'm half doing it for myself as a way to document my process, and half as a way to keep in touch with the people I know and care about. So what's the benefit for you reading this, and why are we talking about writing?
Magnum Opus
Going back to last week's episode about finding meaning, I've found a useful question to ask is 'what is your magnum opus?'. For many people it's their children, for others it's their career, or their impact on the world. For authors it's usually a single document. It might be a thesis, or a work of fiction, or even a political leaflet or manifesto. That got me thinking; what's my magnum opus so far, and what would I like it to be?
Looking back it would be easy to say my doctoral thesis, but it's actually an internal document I wrote (mostly) during a week in Montreal whilst working at Squarepoint which aimed to bring quants and new engineers up to speed on an internal piece of infrastructure*. There was also a great deal of collaboration but the end result was a really great document which turned a complex and powerful tool into something more accessible, plus some feedback I'll never forget from someone very senior (and a subscriber 👀) of; that's fucking sexy. Nobody ever said that about my thesis.
It was a really fun experience writing that document, and one of the highlights of my short hedge fund career, but it raises an interesting question that if my current best piece of writing is an internal document at a firm I no longer work at, what comes next?
Obsessive Ideas
On a related note there's another interesting idea I wanted to include, which is that there is a combination of words which once read could irrevocably change the course of your life. This is true of religious texts, which (usually) through stories aim to command worship and offer enlightenment (simplified). This is also true of many philosophical works, which instead aim to exemplify idealogies or opinions. There are similar but shorter texts which may be just as impactful like Pascal's wager, or information hazards like Roko's Basilisk. Plus fictional works like Tender is the Flesh, The Handmaid's Tale, or Parable of the Sower, which explore ideas around industrial exploitation, reproductive rights, and climate change (all very simplified) respectively, using harsh and powerful imagery to deepen their impact. Interestingly the effect of all of these texts is not universal, but instead exists as a spectrum. Some people may experience existential dread or a perspective shift whilst others aren't impacted at all.
This brings me to my reason for leaving the corporate world, and the reason to travel. There was no single piece of text which convinced me to take this path, but there was a collection of information I was exposed to, after which the decision made rational sense to me, even though it didn't to anyone I knew in a similar position. So maybe it's not about the way the information is presented, but rather the information itself which is most important. Or maybe it's the presentation which acts as a sort of amplifier for the effect of the information, making it more or less effective against a potential audience. This is a central tenet of Writing Science by Joshua Schimel, without knowing your audience nothing will work.
Anyway, I guess the moral of this story is that great writing (and implicitly great thinking) is worth something, and that it impacts your life whether you mean it to or not. Many people are unable or simply fail to articulate their feelings and ideas to others given the quality of their writing (myself included). This does however work the other way around. Great writing can compel others to share their thoughts more freely with you, so you are both the chicken and the egg simultaneously.
So, being good at writing (and aiming for being great at writing) is something I'd like to focus on (alongside figuring out what to do and where to go) over the coming weeks, so I hope you'll join me for next week's episode which will be about something interesting and useful, probably. Worst case it'll be a great read.
Thanks and all the best,
Oliver
*I also wrote a particularly potent email once, but that's one for the memoirs 😉
Previous Episode: Big Bansko Energy