The Case for Writing Badly First

Every good piece we have published started as something embarrassing. The trick is not avoiding the bad draft; it is getting through it before lunch.

Taking notes by hand is slower, and that is the point. The friction forces you to decide what matters before you write it down.

The part nobody mentions

The first version of anything is a question, not an answer. Treating it that way makes feedback easier to give and much easier to hear.

Constraints are underrated. A fixed word count, a single typeface, or a two-colour palette forces decisions that an open brief lets you postpone forever.

Reading work aloud is the cheapest editing tool there is. Your ear catches rhythm problems that your eye skips over, especially in long sentences.

• A notebook that fits in a coat pocket
• A pencil that is already sharp
• An hour with the door closed
• A reader you trust

Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.

Harold Abelson, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

We try to write for one specific reader. When a paragraph confuses that imaginary person, it usually confuses everyone else too.

Good tools disappear. The ones we keep are the ones we stop noticing, because they do exactly what we expect every single time.

Taking notes by hand is slower, and that is the point. The friction forces you to decide what matters before you write it down.