Expert writing

Watch this game-changing dissertation on "expert writing."

Expert writers write to "think" about the world.

99% of experts write and think at the same time. They use the writing process to help themselves think. This is how they do their best thinking.

Write to think about the world. Do this because you care, because you want to be part of progress, because you want to make a dent in the universe.

Write to inspire and influence. And when you are finished writing, and you click publish, think about your work this way...

the intent of your text is to cause readers to change the way they think about the world.

Engagement metrics don't really matter in comparison.

Whether or not your text is valuable, depends on whether or not your readers perceive that you have valuably changed what they think, or what they do, or how they decide.

One of the reasons it's so hard for smart people to write well is because they don't write to change the way people think about the world. They write to complete a project, to earn a grade, to be assessed. Or they write to publish their thoughts without going through a mental and soulful exercise of writing to think about the world, without writing to change how people think about the world.

Write to think about the world.
Change how people think about the world.

In an era of #GenerativeAI, content isn't the end game. Your goal isn't just to get someone's attention, generate reactions, or show up in search. Your mission is to change how people think about the world.

Change How People Think About the World.

Thank you, Larry McEnerney (now-retired former Director of the University of Chicago's Writing Program).