Category Archives: Writing

My New Podcast Generating Workflow

In Accessibility First in Podcasts, I wrote that since my podcasts are scripted, I don’t have to work hard to get a transcript.

But I found that writing a script was both hard and resulted in a podcast that sounded written. Even if I memorize and perform it well, it didn’t sound like my spoken “voice”.

So, I decided to

Start with a rough outline
Make a recording of a lot of extemporaneous speaking on the subject
Make a transcription of the recording using Whisper from OpenAI
Edit the transcription into a coherent story, but try to preserve the phrasing
Practice it
Make a recording that basically follows the script. It’s ok to make mistakes, rephrase, or veer off.
Edit the recording to remove mistakes and reduce overly long pauses
Listen to the recording and fix the script so it’s now a transcript.

The key thing is step #4 which helps me make a script that sounds like me talking (not writing).

Blog Posts, Randomness, and Optionality

I started this blog in 2003. I have some favorites and ones that I think are worth reading. But I would never have guessed which one would be the most read.

I have a few posts that are probably one of the best places to learn about a specific technical problem, and Google sends people to them. For example, Understanding EXC_BAD_ACCESS clears a lot of misconceptions about what this error means. It’s popular, but not the most popular.

I have a few posts that are jokey movie reviews, where I take one technical aspect and just review that part (it’s based on a Letterman bit). In my review of Oz (the James Franco prequel to the Wizard of Oz), I tried to figure out how the Wizard’s projection technology might have worked (given 19th century constraints). This one is the most popular of the movie reviews because people keep searching for “wizard of oz machine“.

But, by far, the most popular page on this site is the one that hosts my UML cheatsheet. It dominates my search traffic. If I had nothing else on this site, my analytics wouldn’t even notice.

I wrote that post in 2006 based on a talk I gave to a local .NET users group. I didn’t know C# or any .NET yet, but I contributed what I could, UML sketching, which is applicable to any OO language.

There is no way I could have predicted that it would be my most popular post beforehand, which is part of what I mean when I say in Randomness is the Great Creator, that “I believe that the universe is a random, unknowable thing that offers infinite variety. We have an opportunity to tap into it with contributions to the randomness”. It’s why I put these posts out there.

It’s also related to the lesson I learned on the importance of optionality. One of the reasons to collect options is that you are positively exposed to randomness. In this sense, each blog post is an option. They have a low fixed cost to make, but each has a tiny chance at infinite upside.

Or at least some.

It’s also a signal of a direction that might be fruitful, which I’ll explore soon.

In Praise of Pamphlets

One of the influential books in my life is A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young. I spoke about it at length in episode 13 of my podcast, where I called it a pamphlet.

I meant this in the sense of it being short and focussed. He doesn’t waste any of his 48 pages on background or fluff. It’s almost entirely about the technique.

I read a lot of (much longer) books in the same basic genre of this one — “A wise, old knowledge worker gives you their secret to doing knowledge work.” But probably because of the tyranny of the publishing industry, they have to be fleshed out to 300 pages, and so I have to read the same old Steve Jobs anecdotes again. Because pretty much any good idea about creativity, business, or productivity has a Steve Jobs anecdote.

We’re just lucky that Webb’s book predates Steve Jobs, but I don’t really remember him telling any anecdotes. There are no lessons from pseudo-science (or worse, non-reproducible, but compelling, real science). He is 100% betting that you don’t need to be convinced, or that the technique itself is convincing, and he rewards you by keeping it short.

Being American, I learned about the great patriotic pamphlets of the revolutionary era, like Common Sense, and so maybe I have a soft spot for this kind of work. In a way, maybe all pamphlets are common sense.

A Tale of Two Restarts

I injured my hamstring right before I was set to run a marathon this past June. I went to a few physical therapy sessions to see if I could do anything to salvage my training, but ultimately I decided to not do the marathon and greatly reduced my running volume so that I could heal.

And then I just stopped altogether.

I was traveling and my hamstring wasn’t getting better, and I just wanted to not think about it for a few weeks.

At the same time, I also stopped writing and podcasting.

By the time I got back, my hamstring felt great. I had lost a bit of fitness, and July in Florida is no time to train or run marathons, but I did settle back into my normal summer training regimen. I had restarted immediately without really trying that hard.

I did not restart writing. What was the difference?

For one, I’ve been running for a very long time, and I have gotten a lot out of it. I generally believe my health depends on me doing it. And, in the past three years, I have been doing it very consistently. Every run I do now seems to pay off immediately in self-esteem, weight maintenance, and feelings of fitness.

Although I’ve been writing over the same period, I have only gotten very consistent six months ago. And, although I have had successes, the benefits of continuing are not as clear. I have data that shows I am slimmer, faster, and more efficient. I don’t have anything like that for writing.

And, I legitimately hurt myself running in a way that rest would help. It was not an excuse. The work I needed to do was to rest. Perhaps that was the same with writing—maybe I needed a rest. That does feel like more of an excuse to me though.

I also have an app that I care about that can only be used if I run. My programmer identity forces me to run in order to program.

But, probably more importantly, I belong to a running group with a coach. It’s harder not to run than to run. There is some accountability there, but that’s not what helped me restart—it was my coach making a specific plan to restart that helped. She had been in my position many times and could help me through it.

So, what could I do to make sure I keep writing? I think two things are clear

Get a coach.
Have some kind of feedback mechanism.

My main issue is that I don’t really have a goal beyond just doing it to do it. I thought that would be enough, but I think I could use a little more.

I choose not to quit

THOSE WHO WOULD MAKE ART might well begin by reflecting on the fate of those who preceded them: most who began, quit.
– Bayles, David; Orland, Ted. Art & Fear

I began this year with the intention of writing here everyday and for 6 months or so, I found it easy.

And then, life got in the way.

In my case, it’s not bad news. I took some time off to travel in the COVID dip in June/July and got to see family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a year or more. And, I started getting interesting projects with deadlines and expectations. I don’t think it should have totally derailed me, but it did.

But, I’ve come back to some kind of equilibrium now. Or maybe it’s just the normal ebbs and flows of energy. I pride myself on having discipline and not needing motivation, but that only works most of the time. Not all of the time.

In any case, I choose not to quit.

Aim a Little Higher in your Whitepapers

I recently handed over my email to get a “whitepaper” that looked interesting from a company that had been recommended more than once as having an interesting product. I was kind of shocked at how shallow it was.

It was not just a crummy commercial — I think I would have preferred that though. I don’t mind being sold to if it’s done well.

I remember writing these kinds of things for Atalasoft, and it’s tough. I found one of my old ones that tried to teach imaging to prospective customers.

There are things in there that are simple, but my intent was to make the reader into a somewhat advanced user of imaging products with a deeper understanding. It’s kind of implied that our product could help them do these things, but they were free to try to do it themselves or use our competitors. I was betting that they’d give us a shot and we’d win on the merits.

I knew from talking to customers that these things were not obvious and not knowing them was making their use of our product limited. We could help them more, but they didn’t know what to ask for. The whitepaper was written to get leads, but I sent it to customers too when it was obvious it would help them.

As a test, put the first few pages up for free and see if you still get emails for the rest.

Recommendation: Digital Zettelkasten by David Kadavy

I just bought and finished reading Digital Zettelkasten by David Kadavy. It’s a quick read and a good companion to How to Take Smart Notes, which I talked about in Write While True Episode 2: Small Bits of Writing and Write While True Episode 3: First Drafts.

Like David, I think of note-taking as primarily about writing and is the starting point of my original writing. His book covers his workflow, which is a lot like mine. I got a few new tips, but it was mostly a reinforcement of how I think of note-taking.

As I covered in my podcast, I “read” by writing. At the end of reading a book, I have generated bits of writing in Obsidian and flash cards for Anki (covered in Write While True Episode 14: Spaced Repetition). This has helped me retain the information I have read, have new ideas, and develop them into new writing.

If you write, but don’t currently have a note-taking practice and would like to see how one writer does it (in detail), this book is worth your time.

Building a Serendipity Machine

In yesterday’s podcast, I talked about spaced-repetition and how I use Anki to help with my memory. Anki is a flash card system that uses algorithms to show you cards just as you might be forgetting them.

If you are just using this casually, like I am, you only need to “study” for a few minutes a day (and skipping days or even weeks will be fine—Anki will catch you up). If you are a student who is using Anki to cram for exams, you would probably do it differently.

I built up my deck over time. I make new cards while reading or watching videos. I made a bunch last week while watching WWDC.

In the podcast, I said to use a single deck with all of your cards mixed together. So, if in a few months, you read books in different subjects, you wouldn’t make separate decks for each book or subject. This makes it a lot easier to just make cards whenever you want without thinking about it too much. It also makes studying a kind of serendipity machine.

A couple of episodes ago, I had spoken about how to generate ideas by combining disparate knowledge. Going through an Anki session of uncategorized cards helps me do that regularly.

So, in my deck today, I was asked about:

The kinds of gates you find in QUIL quantum computing (I read Quantum Country this year which is a book with embedded spaced-repetition)
The goals of visual design
A specific Typescript operator
Covey’s 7 Habits
The parts of C4

As I think it over, there is perhaps something interesting about the communication principles in C4, the communication goals of visual design generally, and Covey’s 7 Habits—specifically “Seek First to Understand”, which is the core communication habit.

I should write a note about that.

Design by Comparing Opposites

In my podcast episode, Write While True Episode 7: Find Your Voice, I tried to express an idea that I find is useful in a lot of contexts. There are some choices where you are trying to make something specific or differentiating—in those cases, one way to know that you’ve done it is to see if the opposite choice is also reasonable.

In this case, I was talking about trying to find my “voice” in the podcast—what makes it mine and not generic. I recommended Joanna Wiebe’s video on voice and tone.

But, I cautioned against a voice that was “smart”. I said:

I actually don’t think smart is a good choice because the opposite of smart is very rarely appropriate. Everyone would choose to sound smart.

When you have a generically positive aspect that you want (like smart), a useful technique is to consider opposing ways to achieve it.

I recommended considering the choices of “expert” or “fellow learner” instead of smart. Both voices might be smart, but they are specific, opposite, and both are reasonable.

This is also a good technique in job seeking. It’s easier to find what you want if it’s not something that everyone would claim to have.

Sending a clear signal that “this is not for you” is the only way the people that it is for will recognize it.

Observing Experts

I started running in 2005 and did a marathon in 2009, but I ran sporadically for a few years after that. I had always done it pretty much on my own, and that limited my progress and sometimes led to injuries.

I started running seriously again in November 2018. The big change I made was getting a coach. I had just read Peak by Anders Ericsson, and learned that one way to become an expert was by watching experts. It wasn’t so much what the expert taught—Ericsson thinks that experts don’t always know why or how they do things. What seemed to be useful was just observing experts. (Incidentally, Ericsson is also the source of the 10,000 hours idea popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. Peak corrects a lot of the misconceptions about that).

My running coach, Holly, has run her whole life. She’s done 25+ marathons and several triathlons and also uses coaches herself. She often expresses her lessons as her observations of the elites she was run with (so I am observing an observer). Two years into it, I have gotten everything I wanted out of it and more.

So, I am trying to apply the success I have had by running with an expert to other aspects of my life.

I want to write a lot more, so I joined the Blogging for Devs pro community where I am surrounded by devs of all success levels that I can observe. Last year, I did the Akimbo Podcast Workshop which similarly exposes you to a cohort of podcasters—a mix of experts and other learners. I am learning a lot just by watching and emulating their behaviors.

The recurring behavior I observed from the successful bloggers and podcasters in these communities is to just publish. Almost everything else there is to learn only makes sense in the context published work.

So, my advice is to seek out experts doing the thing you want to be an expert in. And when you find one, I’d ask just to watch them work and then emulate their behaviors without necessarily understanding why at first. The book, Peak, has a lot to say about this, and if you are skeptical, watch this video about learning tennis by observing.