Writing (communication method)

TagLast edit: 31 May 2021 8:30 UTC by Jsevillamol

About the art and science of using writing to think and communicate.

Including posts on: the history of writing, how to write better, comparing and recommending writing tools, and more.

External Links:

Nonfiction Writing Advice by Scott Alexander

How To Write Quickly While Maintaining Epistemic Rigor

johnswentworth28 Aug 2021 17:52 UTC

447 points

38 comments4 min readLW link 3 reviews

How to Write Like Kaj Sotala

Matt Goldenberg7 Jan 2021 19:33 UTC

77 points

4 comments5 min readLW link

Epistemic Legibility

Elizabeth9 Feb 2022 18:10 UTC

306 points

30 comments20 min readLW link 1 review

(acesounderglass.com)

Editing Advice for LessWrong Users

JustisMills11 Apr 2022 16:32 UTC

232 points

14 comments6 min readLW link 1 review

Writing to think

Adam Zerner17 Nov 2020 7:54 UTC

68 points

27 comments5 min readLW link

Writing On The Pareto Frontier

johnswentworth17 Sep 2021 0:05 UTC

73 points

12 comments3 min readLW link

Contrarian Writing Advice

lsusr7 Mar 2021 0:23 UTC

54 points

13 comments1 min readLW link

Abstracts should be either Actually Short™, or broken into paragraphs

Raemon24 Mar 2023 0:51 UTC

93 points

27 comments5 min readLW link

Dan Luu on “You can only communicate one top priority”

Raemon18 Mar 2023 18:55 UTC

148 points

18 comments3 min readLW link

(twitter.com)

[Question] Are there good classes (or just articles) on blog writing?

Brendan Long19 Apr 2021 1:10 UTC

14 points

12 comments1 min readLW link

Observations about writing and commenting on the internet

dynomight15 Feb 2022 0:02 UTC

94 points

10 comments11 min readLW link

(dynomight.net)

Why write more: improve your epistemics, self-care, & 28 other reasons

KatWoods17 Dec 2022 19:25 UTC

22 points

1 comment6 min readLW link

Typology of blog posts that don’t always add anything clear and insightful

KatjaGrace13 Jul 2021 1:40 UTC

50 points

3 comments9 min readLW link

(worldspiritsockpuppet.com)

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy—A Short Summary

Jsevillamol29 May 2021 11:47 UTC

26 points

4 comments4 min readLW link

Writing children’s picture books

jessicata25 Jun 2019 21:43 UTC

125 points

22 comments5 min readLW link

(unstableontology.com)

Don’t feed the void. She is fat enough!

Johannes C. Mayer29 Dec 2022 14:18 UTC

11 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

Why the Best Writers Endure Isolation

Declan Molony16 Jul 2024 5:58 UTC

48 points

6 comments2 min readLW link

Notes on writing

RP10 Jan 2023 4:01 UTC

35 points

11 comments3 min readLW link

Original Seeing

Eliezer Yudkowsky14 Oct 2007 4:38 UTC

171 points

29 comments2 min readLW link

Duncan Sabien On Writing

lynettebye7 Apr 2022 16:09 UTC

36 points

3 comments16 min readLW link

Twitter thread on postrationalists

Eli Tyre17 Feb 2022 9:02 UTC

142 points

32 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] Should LW suggest standard metaprompts?

Dagon21 Aug 2024 16:41 UTC

3 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

Excerpts from “A Reader’s Manifesto”

Arjun Panickssery6 Sep 2024 22:37 UTC

72 points

1 comment13 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

The Best Lay Argument is not a Simple English Yud Essay

J Bostock10 Sep 2024 17:34 UTC

247 points

15 comments5 min readLW link

Word Spaghetti

Gordon Seidoh Worley23 Oct 2024 5:39 UTC

18 points

9 comments3 min readLW link

Subscripts for Probabilities

niplav13 Apr 2023 18:32 UTC

67 points

9 comments5 min readLW link

RA Bounty: Looking for feedback on screenplay about AI Risk

Writer26 Oct 2023 13:23 UTC

30 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] What’s your favorite notetaking system?

Elizabeth30 Sep 2019 6:18 UTC

31 points

7 comments1 min readLW link

Writing That Provokes Comments

Raemon4 Oct 2017 2:48 UTC

95 points

39 comments4 min readLW link

Writing Down Conversations

Raemon28 Dec 2017 22:08 UTC

53 points

13 comments2 min readLW link

Write a Thousand Roads to Rome

Screwtape8 Feb 2018 18:09 UTC

112 points

17 comments4 min readLW link

Only say ‘rational’ when you can’t eliminate the word

Eliezer Yudkowsky31 May 2012 6:56 UTC

100 points

49 comments1 min readLW link

Rhetoric for the Good

lukeprog26 Oct 2011 18:52 UTC

85 points

292 comments4 min readLW link

Hedge drift and advanced motte-and-bailey

Stefan_Schubert1 May 2016 14:45 UTC

54 points

13 comments2 min readLW link

Simple but important ideas

John_Maxwell21 Mar 2012 6:59 UTC

27 points

20 comments1 min readLW link

Quantum Explanations

Eliezer Yudkowsky9 Apr 2008 8:15 UTC

93 points

60 comments6 min readLW link

How webs of meaning grow and change

Hazard14 Aug 2020 13:58 UTC

14 points

0 comments10 min readLW link

Writing Style and the Typical Mind Fallacy

lukeprog14 Jul 2013 4:47 UTC

42 points

76 comments1 min readLW link

The ideas you’re not ready to post

JulianMorrison19 Apr 2009 21:23 UTC

29 points

264 comments1 min readLW link

What topics would you like to see more of on LessWrong?

Emile13 Dec 2010 16:20 UTC

38 points

138 comments1 min readLW link

On Suddenly Not Being Able to Work

Jacob Falkovich25 Aug 2020 22:14 UTC

35 points

11 comments4 min readLW link

Popularizing vibes vs. models

DirectedEvolution12 Jul 2023 5:44 UTC

19 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

Write

alkjash29 Jan 2018 2:11 UTC

42 points

7 comments4 min readLW link

(radimentary.wordpress.com)

The Haters Gonna Hate Fallacy

Kaj_Sotala22 Sep 2020 12:20 UTC

47 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

(kajsotala.fi)

My checklist for publishing a blog post

Steven Byrnes15 Aug 2023 15:04 UTC

84 points

6 comments3 min readLW link

Some reasons why I frequently prefer communicating via text

Adam Zerner18 Sep 2023 21:50 UTC

51 points

18 comments2 min readLW link

How to Get Rationalist Feedback

Nicholas / Heather Kross5 Oct 2023 2:03 UTC

13 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

Five examples

Adam Zerner14 Feb 2021 2:47 UTC

42 points

17 comments5 min readLW link

Open loops in fiction

Kaj_Sotala14 Mar 2021 8:50 UTC

70 points

13 comments2 min readLW link

(kajsotala.fi)

You Can Now Embed Flashcard Quizzes in Your LessWrong posts!

spencerg19 Apr 2021 13:44 UTC

57 points

25 comments4 min readLW link

When writing triggers memory reconsolidation

Adam Zerner25 Jul 2021 22:10 UTC

34 points

4 comments3 min readLW link

Autoregressive Propaganda

lsusr22 Aug 2021 2:18 UTC

25 points

3 comments3 min readLW link

Three Principles to Writing Original Nonfiction

lsusr6 Sep 2021 20:08 UTC

32 points

4 comments5 min readLW link

Debugging Writer’s Block

matto9 Oct 2021 19:04 UTC

10 points

10 comments4 min readLW link

Book Analysis: New Thrawn Trilogy

ozymandias14 Oct 2021 17:49 UTC

62 points

8 comments5 min readLW link

Write Surprisingly About Reality

lsusr16 Oct 2021 7:30 UTC

40 points

7 comments1 min readLW link

Start with a Title

lsusr30 Oct 2021 8:59 UTC

14 points

4 comments1 min readLW link

Tell the Truth

lsusr30 Oct 2021 10:27 UTC

62 points

40 comments2 min readLW link 1 review

Substack Ho?

Zvi6 Nov 2021 16:50 UTC

27 points

17 comments4 min readLW link

(thezvi.wordpress.com)

Blog Respectably

lsusr17 Dec 2021 1:23 UTC

14 points

4 comments1 min readLW link

Business Writing Example #1

lsusr20 Dec 2021 5:02 UTC

65 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

Business Writing Example #2

lsusr20 Dec 2021 5:06 UTC

55 points

10 comments2 min readLW link

Random facts can come back to bite you

tailcalled22 Dec 2021 17:33 UTC

68 points

7 comments2 min readLW link 1 review

Personal blogging as self-imposed oppression

xarkn15 Jan 2022 14:51 UTC

37 points

12 comments3 min readLW link

Iterating fast: voice dictation as a form of babble

Gytis Daujotas25 Jan 2022 0:21 UTC

21 points

5 comments4 min readLW link

Learning By Writing

HoldenKarnofsky22 Feb 2022 15:50 UTC

141 points

15 comments10 min readLW link 3 reviews

(www.cold-takes.com)

Treat Examples as World-Building

adamShimi10 Mar 2022 15:09 UTC

19 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

Control the Density of Novelty in Your Writing

En Kepeig6 Apr 2022 21:33 UTC

6 points

4 comments3 min readLW link

A method of writing content easily with little anxiety

jessicata8 Apr 2022 22:11 UTC

64 points

19 comments3 min readLW link

(unstableontology.com)

In praise of contributing examples, analogies and lingo

Adam Zerner13 Jul 2020 6:43 UTC

37 points

3 comments1 min readLW link

Write posts business-like, not story-like

Shmi5 May 2022 20:13 UTC

39 points

10 comments1 min readLW link

Here’s a List of Some of My Ideas for Blog Posts

lsusr26 May 2022 5:35 UTC

48 points

7 comments30 min readLW link

[Question] Should you write under a blog or your own name?

Dalton Mabery6 Jul 2022 15:26 UTC

2 points

2 comments1 min readLW link

Review: Amusing Ourselves to Death

L Rudolf L20 Aug 2022 21:13 UTC

44 points

7 comments16 min readLW link 1 review

(www.strataoftheworld.com)

Short story speculating on possible ramifications of AI on the art world

Yitz1 Sep 2022 21:15 UTC

30 points

8 comments3 min readLW link

(archiveofourown.org)

A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox

Henrik Karlsson5 Oct 2022 19:07 UTC

89 points

12 comments11 min readLW link

(escapingflatland.substack.com)

Refine: what helped me write more?

Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel25 Oct 2022 14:44 UTC

12 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

The many types of blog posts

Adam Zerner26 Nov 2022 3:57 UTC

10 points

2 comments4 min readLW link

Looking Back on Posts From 2022

Zvi26 Dec 2022 13:20 UTC

50 points

8 comments17 min readLW link

(thezvi.wordpress.com)

Why and how to write things on the Internet

benkuhn29 Dec 2022 22:40 UTC

20 points

2 comments15 min readLW link

(www.benkuhn.net)

Exquisite Oracle: A Dadaist-Inspired Literary Game for Many Friends (or 1 AI)

Yitz26 Jan 2023 18:26 UTC

6 points

1 comment1 min readLW link

Saying things because they sound good

Adam Zerner31 Jan 2023 0:17 UTC

23 points

6 comments2 min readLW link

Write It Like A Poem

Strange716 Feb 2011 15:11 UTC

18 points

40 comments3 min readLW link

“Publish or Perish” (a quick note on why you should try to make your work legible to existing academic communities)

David Scott Krueger (formerly: capybaralet)18 Mar 2023 19:01 UTC

99 points

48 comments1 min readLW link

Moved from Moloch’s Toolbox: Discussion re style of latest Eliezer sequence

habryka5 Nov 2017 2:22 UTC

7 points

2 comments3 min readLW link

Why I’m Writing A Book

Samo Burja10 Nov 2020 16:50 UTC

33 points

3 comments3 min readLW link

(medium.com)

SubOnlyStackFans

Jacob Falkovich3 Nov 2020 2:33 UTC

18 points

3 comments3 min readLW link

AIS terminology proposal: standardize terms for probability ranges

eggsyntax30 Aug 2024 15:43 UTC

30 points

12 comments2 min readLW link

How to Make Your Article Change People’s Minds or Actions? (Spoiler: Do User Testing Like a Startup Would)

Yonatan Cale30 Mar 2022 17:39 UTC

59 points

8 comments1 min readLW link

Poll: Any interest in an editing buddy system?

dynomight2 Dec 2020 2:18 UTC

17 points

1 comment1 min readLW link

How I Write

Jacob Falkovich2 Dec 2020 23:17 UTC

68 points

8 comments5 min readLW link

[Question] Writing tools for tabooing?

abramdemski13 Dec 2020 19:50 UTC

15 points

25 comments1 min readLW link

If trying to communicate about AI risks, make it vivid

MNoetel27 May 2024 1:00 UTC

11 points

1 comment2 min readLW link

Avoid Contentious Terms

jefftk24 Feb 2021 3:10 UTC

59 points

6 comments1 min readLW link

(www.jefftk.com)

I hate TL;DR

MarkusRamikin20 Sep 2011 9:23 UTC

33 points

37 comments1 min readLW link

Practicing my Handwriting in 1439

Maxwell Tabarrok3 Feb 2024 13:21 UTC

11 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

(www.maximum-progress.com)

Writing this post as rationality case study

Ben Amitay8 Jul 2023 12:24 UTC

10 points

8 comments2 min readLW link

Notes on effective-altruism-related research, writing, testing fit, learning, and the EA Forum

MichaelA28 Mar 2021 23:43 UTC

14 points

0 comments4 min readLW link

Rediscovery, the Mind’s Curare

Erich_Grunewald10 Apr 2021 7:42 UTC

3 points

1 comment3 min readLW link

(www.erichgrunewald.com)

[Question] How to write better?

TeaTieAndHat29 Jan 2024 17:02 UTC

7 points

24 comments1 min readLW link

How I designed my own writing system, VJScript

vkethana29 May 2024 23:18 UTC

2 points

1 comment1 min readLW link

(www.vkethana.com)

Voicing Voice

Willa28 Jun 2021 4:29 UTC

6 points

16 comments4 min readLW link

The Best Essay (Paul Graham)

Chris_Leong11 Mar 2024 19:25 UTC

25 points

2 comments1 min readLW link

(paulgraham.com)

Summary: “How to Write Quickly...” by John Wentworth

Pablo Repetto11 Apr 2022 23:26 UTC

4 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

(pabloernesto.github.io)

Motivating Alignment of LLM-Powered Agents: Easy for AGI, Hard for ASI?

RogerDearnaley11 Jan 2024 12:56 UTC

34 points

4 comments39 min readLW link

Write to Think

Michael Samoilov12 Jan 2023 0:33 UTC

10 points

2 comments2 min readLW link

Prefer the British Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation over the American

Erich_Grunewald11 Sep 2021 13:37 UTC

46 points

15 comments2 min readLW link

(www.erichgrunewald.com)

When to join a respectability cascade

B Jacobs24 Sep 2024 7:54 UTC

10 points

1 comment2 min readLW link

(bobjacobs.substack.com)

Conventional footnotes considered harmful

dkl91 Oct 2024 14:54 UTC

25 points

16 comments1 min readLW link

(dkl9.net)

More Hyphenation

Arjun Panickssery7 Feb 2024 19:43 UTC

87 points

19 comments1 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

Consider paying for literature or book reviews using bounties and dominant assurance contracts

Arjun Panickssery15 Jan 2023 3:56 UTC

57 points

7 comments2 min readLW link

Preface

iy3d20 Jan 2023 12:38 UTC

4 points

0 comments2 min readLW link

[SEE NEW EDITS] No, You Need to Write Clearer

Nicholas / Heather Kross29 Apr 2023 5:04 UTC

261 points

65 comments5 min readLW link

(www.thinkingmuchbetter.com)

Announcing the Distillation for Alignment Practicum (DAP)

Jonas Hallgren and CallumMcDougall

18 Aug 2022 19:50 UTC

23 points

3 comments3 min readLW link

Ruling Out Everything Else

Duncan Sabien (Deactivated)27 Oct 2021 21:50 UTC

191 points

51 comments21 min readLW link 2 reviews

In Text

Valerii Kremnev25 Jul 2024 18:22 UTC

−3 points

0 comments5 min readLW link

Bioinformatics 101

iy3d22 Jan 2023 2:36 UTC

5 points

0 comments4 min readLW link

Emergent Authorship: Creativity à la Communing

gswonk14 Sep 2024 19:02 UTC

1 point

0 comments3 min readLW link

“Why I Write” by George Orwell (1946)

Arjun Panickssery25 Apr 2024 16:02 UTC

58 points

2 comments9 min readLW link

(www.orwellfoundation.com)

Bite Sized Tasks

Johannes C. Mayer4 Mar 2023 3:31 UTC

18 points

2 comments2 min readLW link

The Monthly Newsletter as Thinking Tool

moridinamael2 Feb 2018 16:42 UTC

39 points

15 comments3 min readLW link

Shortform Beta Launch

Raemon27 Jul 2019 20:09 UTC

67 points

18 comments2 min readLW link

Mazes Sequence Roundup: Final Thoughts and Paths Forward

Zvi6 Feb 2020 16:10 UTC

88 points

28 comments14 min readLW link 1 review

(thezvi.wordpress.com)

Beta Readers are Great

HoldenKarnofsky5 Sep 2022 19:10 UTC

28 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

(www.cold-takes.com)

Paternal Formats

abramdemski9 Jun 2019 1:26 UTC

51 points

35 comments2 min readLW link

Do you like bullet points?

Raemon26 Mar 2019 4:30 UTC

52 points

38 comments2 min readLW link

Rationality and the English Language

Eliezer Yudkowsky12 Sep 2007 22:55 UTC

131 points

33 comments4 min readLW link

Blog Post Day (Unofficial)

Daniel Kokotajlo18 Feb 2020 19:05 UTC

49 points

8 comments1 min readLW link

How to Write Deep Characters

Eliezer Yudkowsky16 Jun 2013 2:10 UTC

69 points

67 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] What are the requirements for being “citable?”

Raemon28 Nov 2019 21:24 UTC

42 points

8 comments1 min readLW link

Blog Post Day II

Daniel Kokotajlo21 Mar 2020 16:39 UTC

37 points

5 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] Why Don’t Creators Switch to their Own Platforms?

Jacob Falkovich23 Dec 2018 4:46 UTC

42 points

17 comments1 min readLW link

Please give your links speaking names!

rmoehn11 Jul 2019 7:47 UTC

44 points

22 comments1 min readLW link

Epistemic Effort

Raemon29 Nov 2016 16:08 UTC

72 points

24 comments4 min readLW link

Subscripting Typographic Convention For Citations/Dates/Sources/Evidentials: A Proposal

gwern8 Jan 2020 22:20 UTC

59 points

15 comments1 min readLW link

LessWrong is providing feedback and proofreading on drafts as a service

Ruby7 Sep 2021 1:33 UTC

294 points

53 comments3 min readLW link

[Question] How do you write original rationalist essays?

lumenwrites1 Dec 2021 8:08 UTC

24 points

19 comments1 min readLW link

Is community-collaborative article production possible?

lukeprog21 Mar 2012 20:10 UTC

57 points

46 comments3 min readLW link

Privacy and writing

Neil 6 Apr 2024 8:20 UTC

20 points

1 comment5 min readLW link

More writeups!

jefftk7 Feb 2020 3:10 UTC

40 points

5 comments1 min readLW link

(www.jefftk.com)

Helping the kids post

jefftk17 Apr 2020 21:40 UTC

87 points

9 comments1 min readLW link

(www.jefftk.com)

Meditations on the Medium

lifelonglearner29 Apr 2018 2:21 UTC

14 points

7 comments8 min readLW link

Rationalist Storybooks: A Challenge

MBlume18 Mar 2009 2:25 UTC

39 points

38 comments1 min readLW link

How to write an academic paper, according to me

Stuart_Armstrong15 Oct 2014 12:29 UTC

45 points

27 comments3 min readLW link

90% of anything should be bad (& the precision-recall tradeoff)

cartografie8 Sep 2022 1:20 UTC

33 points

22 comments6 min readLW link

The Virtue of Numbering ALL your Equations

Linda Linsefors28 Sep 2017 18:41 UTC

7 points

4 comments1 min readLW link

Goodbye, Shoggoth: The Stage, its Animatronics, & the Puppeteer – a New Metaphor

RogerDearnaley9 Jan 2024 20:42 UTC

47 points

8 comments36 min readLW link

Media bias

PhilGoetz5 Jul 2009 16:54 UTC

39 points

47 comments1 min readLW link

PSA: Please list your references, don’t just link them

Benya4 Jan 2013 1:57 UTC

36 points

43 comments1 min readLW link

Have an idea? Come to Oxford to discuss and write (20 – 24 March)

RP, Flourish Journal and Jemima

5 Feb 2023 15:05 UTC

20 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

Reader-generated Essays

Henrik Karlsson3 Jan 2022 8:56 UTC

25 points

1 comment6 min readLW link

(escapingflatland.substack.com)

Against “Classic Style”

Cleo Nardo23 Nov 2022 22:10 UTC

67 points

30 comments4 min readLW link

A more effective Elevator Pitch for AI risk

Iknownothing15 Jun 2023 12:39 UTC

2 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

Rewriting the sequences?

Student_UK13 Jun 2011 14:14 UTC

22 points

32 comments1 min readLW link

Iterative Arguments: Alternative to Adversarial Collaboration

matsn12 Sep 2018 15:56 UTC

27 points

9 comments1 min readLW link

Dominant Assurance Contract Experiment #2: Berkeley House Dinners

Arjun Panickssery5 Jul 2023 0:13 UTC

51 points

8 comments1 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

Too right to write

Solenoid_Entity20 Jan 2022 13:21 UTC

28 points

12 comments3 min readLW link

Dense Math Notation

JK_Ravenclaw1 Apr 2011 3:37 UTC

33 points

23 comments1 min readLW link

[Question] What is some unnecessarily obscure jargon that people here tend to use?

jchan12 Jul 2023 13:52 UTC

17 points

5 comments1 min readLW link

Reading writing advice doesn’t make writing easier

Henry Sleight7 Feb 2024 19:14 UTC

17 points

0 comments5 min readLW link

(open.substack.com)

Seeking Input to AI Safety Book for non-technical audience

Darren McKee10 Aug 2023 17:58 UTC

10 points

4 comments1 min readLW link

Quick Advice on Writing Essays

Niko_McCarty28 May 2024 15:02 UTC

10 points

0 comments3 min readLW link

(www.nikomccarty.com)

My case for starting blogging

Neel Nanda22 Oct 2020 17:43 UTC

36 points

2 comments16 min readLW link

(www.neelnanda.io)

Blog Post Day II Retrospective

Daniel Kokotajlo31 Mar 2020 15:03 UTC

16 points

9 comments1 min readLW link

DIY Deliberate Practice

lynettebye21 Aug 2023 12:22 UTC

62 points

4 comments5 min readLW link

(lynettebye.com)

No comments.

Writ­ing (com­mu­ni­ca­tion method)

Writing (communication method)