First of all, thanks for being a great Orb holder (now that it has sold). I’m going to answer anyway though. I had a lot of fun with the questions and they were highly stimulating and relevant to my interests.

I think one of the most interesting possible topics for me is simply the topic of writing. (I have a few things I’d say I have “expertise” in, but we’ve touched on them recently in prior Orb answers). One question I get a lot is “what is your writing process” / “how do you write”? So I’ll share a bit more about how I do it. I’ve written around a million words publicly in blog posts, journal articles, and op-eds since 2017. Some of them I’m very proud of.

For more about my personal history and why I like to write so much, see this article: https://medium.com/@nic__carter/on-writing-8d90cd63c2e0. The main answer is “because I love the artistic process of writing”. I find a delight in words, etymology, syntax, and turns of phrase. The second answer is “because I feel a sense of urgency about taking ideas out of my own brain and conveying them into the brains of others. Almost all of my writing projects come about because I have an idea that I feel incredibly restless about, and feel a burning need to impart to others. And that’s why I write. Writing is painful, and it’s only worth it if you think there’s a lot of upside in putting ideas in brains, at scale.

I’ll add more on my specific process though. The first thing to know is when not to write. I don’t write when I’m not feeling inspired. This is why a column can sometimes be negative in terms of a writing career. There’s no quicker way to lose interest in your art if you feel that it’s your job. So for me, I rarely accept compensation for writing things, or in the case that I do, it’s not the main reason why I write. I feel lucky that writing can be a hobby for me, and it doesn’t have to be my career. (Even though my actual career involves a ton of writing).

So my first piece of advice is wait to strike until you have something you feel you really need to say. Writing for the sake of it is the equivalent of “junk reps” at the gym. Obviously, you need to be skilled at the art of writing (just cause everyone can write words in order doesn’t mean they’re all equally good), so you need a lot of practice in the first place. As a kid, all I would do was write short stories, and read voraciously. Don’t expect to become a good writer overnight. It’s like anything else, you have to work at it. But assuming you’re a decent writer, you will need to be judicious in terms of when you choose to write. If you don’t care deeply about the topic, you won’t me motivated to look deeply into sources, do the right research, talk to the right people, get feedback, and revise the story until it’s perfect. So my best tip for writing is don’t write when it’s not the right moment. When you do write, you want it to matter.

The way it works for me is I marinade on an idea for a long time. Sometimes days, sometimes weeks, and sometimes even years. I put my brain to work subconsciously developing an idea and it works on it in the back of my head over time.

Then, gradually, or suddenly, an impression comes to me. It might be a visual impression. It might be a fragment of text. Normally it’s when I’m doing something active, like running or walking. Charles Darwin went for a walk around his garden every day to gain inspiration. Physiologically, you’re more likely to be creative if you’re doing moderate exercise, for whatever reason. One of my best-known articles came to me as a sentence fragment – “bitcoin is a most peaceful revolution”. I thought about it for a bit, rushed home, and wrote the entire thing in about 30 minutes. This is a best case scenario of course. It’s not always like this.

But generally it’s a similar pattern. I find something that I think others are wrong about, or find out some key insight or piece of data I desperately want to share. But I don’t know the structure yet. So I think about it, try to clarify my thoughts (the first draft in my head is always hopelessly muddled), and when I finally feel confident, I sit down (normally late at night or early in the morning, when the noise of the day has died down) and try to release the thoughts in a torrent of energy. Actually, I’ve done a lot of my best writing on airplanes when there’s no wifi and no distraction. This is funny, because you are always a little hypoxic on planes, so your brain isn’t necessarily working at its best. Sometimes, I land, read the draft, and think to myself “wow, this is total gibberish”.

Then I take that first draft and sit on it, usually for around 48 hours at least (but sometimes, for months or literally years). Unless it’s super time sensitive. That way, I can return to it with fresh eyes and be very critical, like it’s someone else’s writing. Then I perform the difficult process of totally eliminating portions that aren’t efficient. You have to be extremely critical with yourself. The problem is you feel a huge “sunk cost” in terms of your words - you know exactly how long it took and how hard it was to write that page or that paragraph, and you’ll make up any excuse to yourself for keeping it in the final thing. But you have to be tough with yourself, and be super surgical. Your first draft is never good, so you can’t be happy with it right away.

After this initial stage is over, I spend a few days or weeks gathering the remaining data, facts, or interview content that I need to complete the story. Usually I am doing data-driven stuff, so this is often the most time consuming. But it’s easy at this point, because I tend to know exactly what I need. The last step is feedback. I’m lucky enough to have a bunch of subject matter experts at my disposal that are also great writers, and are happy to review my work meaningfully. (I’d estimate at least 50 people that I occasionally send me stuff to). In return, I’ll review their work. This part of the process is essential. Good third party feedback is absolutely essential - I don’t publish without it. This is a network that has to be cultivated over time. Normally, people are nice and don’t want to criticize harshly. This is a poisoned chalice. You deserve great feedback, and if you are willing to offer it to them, they’ll do the same for you.

This process has a strong filter. From top of funnel “idea stage” to finished article that I’m happy with, probably only 5% of articles make it. The fact that I don’t publish on a fixed schedule is what allows me to do this. I can select for my best ideas and be ruthless with my mediocre ones.

Hope you found this interesting!