Two kinds of writers

A. Those who think they know what they are talking about

B. Those who talk like they don’t know what they’re thinking about

No reason these should be mutually exclusive but in practice they mostly are

I’m almost exclusively B. All my writing grasps at stuff just outside my cognitive reach

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

The big risk for type A, which people like Paul Graham succumb to, is that they don’t actually know and should be in B-mode

The big risk for type B is that there is no there there and you’re chasing a mirage in peripheral noise

I don’t do type A not because I’m afraid of being wrong or that I have no topics I could talk about with confidence, but because talking about stuff I know inside-out bores me. I try to apply it or teach it for pay if the pay is good enough. But there is no intrinsic satisfaction to explainering for me.

Clarity-technologies.com COO and co-founder, Internet Explorer, VIP 🧭 Co-host of /music 🎵 

xSonos xOura

bradbarrish.me

Never quite to the point where it’s clear enough to teach. I usually quit at 80% as I start getting bored. People who learn with me learn. Those who wait for the simplified explainer never get it. Others have sometimes tried to do it for me but it never quite seems to work.

Do you not find yourself coming to know a thing as you are writing? As someone who has read your writing for a long time, the impression is that, on some level, we (your readers) learn with you.