why writing online matters and how to do it better
Hey friend,
Writing online has changed my life.
In one way or another it has led to all of my machine learning roles!
But good, honest writing without fear doesn't exist.
When I would post to the fast.ai forums, I was scared of what Jeremy Howard and my peers might think of me.
When I was writing Meta Learning, I was scared publishing it might lead to me losing my job.
Now that I write this newsletter, I am scared of what my colleagues at NVIDIA might think of me. I mean, how many engineers do you know who would spend their free time to study communication instead of reading another ML paper?
I am also scared that in my attempts to grow my audience I will do something unethical to my readers or say something that will make me lose the goodwill I generated with my audience.
In fact, sometimes you give in to the fear.
February 15th 2023
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But that is okay. There will always be another opportunity to write something honest. Something that can be helpful to others.
Overall, there is no other activity that has contributed to me becoming an ML Engineer more than writing did.
And the beauty of it all is that it doesn't matter how well you write.
When I started posting to fast.ai forums I had no clue about online etiquette. Also, something as basic that you should be concise when writing online had not even crossed my mind!
So the first challenge everyone needs to overcome is to start to write. It doesn't matter how good your writing is.
But at some point you might want to level up your game.
Below I list some of my favorite resources on writing that I have come across over the years.
๐๏ธ 70 minutes to a great understanding on how to write to be read - Craig Clemens is a legendary copywriter who cut his teeth writing online. In a podcast episode, The Hidden Secret To Getting Everything You Want | Craig Clemens, he shares invaluable advice on how to become a more impactful communicator and influencer! This is a great start to begin improving as a writer.
๐๏ธ 3x podcasts on the writing process - There is a natural progression to a good ML project. You start with a baseline, you grow your solution organically, you evaluate results and perform error analysis. Similarly, there is a process to writing that if you follow guarantees success. I learned it by listening to these Tim Ferris podcasts:
- โSteven Pressfield โ How to Overcome Self-Sabotage and Resistance, Routines for Little Successes, and The Heroโs Journey vs. The Artistโs Journeyโ
- โJoyce Carol Oates โ A Writing Icon on Creative Process and Creative Livingโ
- โMary Karr โ The Master of Memoir on Creative Process and Finding Gifts in the Sufferingโ
๐ Book about writing (and so much more) - it is impossible to accomplish anything major (such as learning ML for example) without giving it time consistently over a prolonged period of time. Same with writing books or longer articles. No book addresses this better than theThe War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
๐ On the technical aspect of writing - Generally, grammar and punctuation do not matter. That is because nearly everyone's writing has much bigger issues that completely overshadow these types of problems! In Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content Ann Handley addresses what good writing looks like and how to build towards it.
๐ For those serious about writing online - Writing online is a like entering a bar fight. You don't know what is going on, things are happening all around you, but you don't know what you should do. So you start swinging hoping for the best. The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention helps you make sense of it all. Nicolas Cole, the author, has walked the path of writing online to a great success, over many years. The information he shares ins unparallelled.
My favorite things โค๏ธ
๐ฎ A fun 5-minute game where you learn about misinformation - Go Viral! is a really fun game created in cooperation with a bunch of scientists where you learn how to make your posts go viral on social media! This information is consistent with what I learned from a couple of Twitter courses and by listening to the Your Undivided Attention podcast.
๐ A very interesting Twitter account on data science and YouTube - There is nothing more exciting in life than combining two awesome things together! Let's face it, data science when explained without real life applications, can be quite dry. Worse, if you don't put your data science understanding to a test in real life, you can never be sure as to the level to your skills. wono_strategy has the best mix of data science and YouTube insights I have ever come across! Check out this thread for example. This is the way we should teach data science concepts. Take a genuinely interesting complex phenomenon from the world around you and attempt to untangle it using DS. I absolutely love this!
My new video ๐บ
How to look better on camera, be that for Zoom calls or when recording tutorials?
There is so much that can be done! But much of it requires a good chunk of money and worse, a lot of your time.
Turns out the simple answer to this question is an IPhone and the AI processing it incorporates.
In the video below Hamel demonstrates the setup he arrived at to create a professional, cinematic vibe to his recordings. We also discuss ins and outs of creating a studio setup and the ways in which an IPhone can alleviate much of the pain.
Quote(s) of the Week โ๏ธ
Nelson Mandela
Franklin D. Roosevelt during the inauguration as the 32nd president of the United States in 1933
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