Also, I have an object-level idea for how to improve my writing—by beginning to read others with more attention to their style and why it work or doesn’t work, rather than only to its content.
Definitely read more than you write, and pay attention to WHY you like or dislike various aspects of others’ writing, and try to infer why they’re popular or not. But there’s a trap in thinking that it’s mostly about style, worse than (but similar to) the trap that a lot of rationalists fall into that it’s entirely about content.
In truth, both matter, but content is the base and style is just the coating. I think for this post (and the reason I downvoted (I wish I could mild-downvote, only if it won’t bring it below 5 or so total)), you do have the start of interesting content, but you went meta too quickly, and didn’t attempt to distill any discoveries or learnings from your exploration.
Also, I have an object-level idea for how to improve my writing—by beginning to read others with more attention to their style and why it work or doesn’t work, rather than only to its content.
Definitely read more than you write, and pay attention to WHY you like or dislike various aspects of others’ writing, and try to infer why they’re popular or not. But there’s a trap in thinking that it’s mostly about style, worse than (but similar to) the trap that a lot of rationalists fall into that it’s entirely about content.
In truth, both matter, but content is the base and style is just the coating. I think for this post (and the reason I downvoted (I wish I could mild-downvote, only if it won’t bring it below 5 or so total)), you do have the start of interesting content, but you went meta too quickly, and didn’t attempt to distill any discoveries or learnings from your exploration.