Rob, I always enjoy your writing. It's not only the topics you cover and your perspectives on social classes but you also have a writing style that is to the point. Some may find it simplistic, but it's effective in clearly saying what you need to say. And you don't overwrite nor overexplain. Valuable traits often lost on those who find academic jargo impressive.
As someone who has written extensively for work and pleasure, I am always mindful of a saying I came across on a writing book years ago, and that it takes a million words before you become a good writer. I laughed at the time but a million words later I now understand. Writing is both easy and hard. It's 1% inspiration and 99% hard work. Like Frank Lee mentioned, persistence is the way to do it. Others call it bum glue. Just sit down and do it! And then finish it!
We're all preaching to the choir here, aren't we ;)
Your newsletter always has a touch of inspiration, practical information and helpful advice all delivered with a candor that is so refreshing. It’s so obvious that you want to help others, enrich lives and give information to help your readers navigate life. Your memoir is a hybrid of your own experiences and how social conditions and luxury beliefs can take a devastating toll on our most precious national resource, our children and youth. This book could not have come at a better time, millennials and gen Z can make better choices, reject luxury beliefs to help the next generation of kids have a better chance.
I needed to read this today as I will myself to write something after working a 9 hour day at a job to enable such leisure activity. Im very curious about why you started writing for a general audience in the first place given that you could have easily decided to throw yourself into the academic rat race.
Also - I see here your subscriber breakdown. I got your reading list of psych research, and I wonder why you think the breakdown is thus. My suspicion is because professional class women have less incentive to seek out such heretical ideas because the cultural zeitgeist rewards those who use victimhood with social clout. I've noticed also that most people writing about these topics in general are men.
Somehow that's unsurprising, because academia is a class project as much as it is about scholarship, and I wouldn't count increasingly narrow research unavailable to the public as meaningful, either, judging from my time in grad school studying area studies and history.
Any kind of artist, or a writer, has accomplished the task if any person watching them, thinks that going home will be able, immediately, to do well at the same level. This idea came to me at a concert with Sir James Galway, my favorite flute player. On writing, I was impressed with the mellow, beautiful, and poetic flow that Herman Hesse had in all his novels and mostly in the short stories. Then, more value is added when we find out how hard and dramatic childhood many artists had, and how they evolved from cocoons to butterflies.
My unfortunate brain decides to write as I read if the stuff is brainy... which makes it very hard to read brainy stuff.
But then I have learned the persistence way to just write. And then when I go back and read what I wrote it inspires me to write something a step above what I scribbled. My first drafts always suck. The second drafts often do too.
But I am still working running two businesses and don't have enough time to write as much as I would like. Retirement is a few years away, so I am just collecting ideas.
I do read a very diverse set of stuff: food/chef stuff, whiskey and wine stuff, business stuff, tech stuff, science stuff (the 10th grade reading level version), health stuff, political stuff, gardening stuff... and for my books I tend to read fiction novels, or historical books that are written as novels. When I read books on any current political-related issues, it makes me want to take notes and write. So I don't tend to get through them quickly.
I like writing styles that are more condensed and succinct... that don't go off the rails in complex vocabulary (I think often it is just the writer showing off a larger dictionary repertoire which irritates me). Most of my life has included business writing... and good business writing is clear, concise and to the point. Fluff words send a message of the writer being full of fluff.
What keeps me coming back to your writing, Rob, is your persistent unwillingness to escape reality. So many academics seem to retreat into a the world they wish for rather than staying in the world that truly exists. Your choice to not become an academic while using its tools in describing our predicament is a welcome departure from the norm.
My own writing is in making comments on the posts of others, and maybe a few quotes in a retweet, when I can add something.
Your writing, Rob, sounds like your authentic voice. Who you really are, mostly.
At least sober; there’s some desire to see you when you’re drunk, and what embarrassing stuff you’d say then, but I realize such stuff can’t be unsaid and it’s maybe unwise, and even unfair to your future, especially a future wife.
I love what you have to say about writing, and I copied that C.S. Lewis quote because it articulates so beautifully how I feel about my life's purpose – to understand, to explore, to grow. It also relates directly to something I recently wrote about the centrality of empathy (or even spiritual communion) to Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I was motivated to write this piece for no reason other than the fact that I was mad and had something to say. Of course, I assume no one will read it because I may be the only person who cares about my topic. I am going to follow your example and begin setting aside time every day to write/edit. I am sure that it will annoy me at first because I feel as though I have so much more to read and learn than to say. Thanks for the great post!
Rob, I always enjoy your writing. It's not only the topics you cover and your perspectives on social classes but you also have a writing style that is to the point. Some may find it simplistic, but it's effective in clearly saying what you need to say. And you don't overwrite nor overexplain. Valuable traits often lost on those who find academic jargo impressive.
As someone who has written extensively for work and pleasure, I am always mindful of a saying I came across on a writing book years ago, and that it takes a million words before you become a good writer. I laughed at the time but a million words later I now understand. Writing is both easy and hard. It's 1% inspiration and 99% hard work. Like Frank Lee mentioned, persistence is the way to do it. Others call it bum glue. Just sit down and do it! And then finish it!
We're all preaching to the choir here, aren't we ;)
Looking forward to the book.
Your newsletter always has a touch of inspiration, practical information and helpful advice all delivered with a candor that is so refreshing. It’s so obvious that you want to help others, enrich lives and give information to help your readers navigate life. Your memoir is a hybrid of your own experiences and how social conditions and luxury beliefs can take a devastating toll on our most precious national resource, our children and youth. This book could not have come at a better time, millennials and gen Z can make better choices, reject luxury beliefs to help the next generation of kids have a better chance.
I needed to read this today as I will myself to write something after working a 9 hour day at a job to enable such leisure activity. Im very curious about why you started writing for a general audience in the first place given that you could have easily decided to throw yourself into the academic rat race.
I explain how it happened here: https://on.substack.com/p/grow-series-28-rob-henderson?open=false
also academia was not a good fit for me.
Also - I see here your subscriber breakdown. I got your reading list of psych research, and I wonder why you think the breakdown is thus. My suspicion is because professional class women have less incentive to seek out such heretical ideas because the cultural zeitgeist rewards those who use victimhood with social clout. I've noticed also that most people writing about these topics in general are men.
Somehow that's unsurprising, because academia is a class project as much as it is about scholarship, and I wouldn't count increasingly narrow research unavailable to the public as meaningful, either, judging from my time in grad school studying area studies and history.
Any kind of artist, or a writer, has accomplished the task if any person watching them, thinks that going home will be able, immediately, to do well at the same level. This idea came to me at a concert with Sir James Galway, my favorite flute player. On writing, I was impressed with the mellow, beautiful, and poetic flow that Herman Hesse had in all his novels and mostly in the short stories. Then, more value is added when we find out how hard and dramatic childhood many artists had, and how they evolved from cocoons to butterflies.
My unfortunate brain decides to write as I read if the stuff is brainy... which makes it very hard to read brainy stuff.
But then I have learned the persistence way to just write. And then when I go back and read what I wrote it inspires me to write something a step above what I scribbled. My first drafts always suck. The second drafts often do too.
But I am still working running two businesses and don't have enough time to write as much as I would like. Retirement is a few years away, so I am just collecting ideas.
I do read a very diverse set of stuff: food/chef stuff, whiskey and wine stuff, business stuff, tech stuff, science stuff (the 10th grade reading level version), health stuff, political stuff, gardening stuff... and for my books I tend to read fiction novels, or historical books that are written as novels. When I read books on any current political-related issues, it makes me want to take notes and write. So I don't tend to get through them quickly.
I like writing styles that are more condensed and succinct... that don't go off the rails in complex vocabulary (I think often it is just the writer showing off a larger dictionary repertoire which irritates me). Most of my life has included business writing... and good business writing is clear, concise and to the point. Fluff words send a message of the writer being full of fluff.
I very much like Rob's writing style!
I’m so glad I’m subscribed to this newsletter!
What keeps me coming back to your writing, Rob, is your persistent unwillingness to escape reality. So many academics seem to retreat into a the world they wish for rather than staying in the world that truly exists. Your choice to not become an academic while using its tools in describing our predicament is a welcome departure from the norm.
My own writing is in making comments on the posts of others, and maybe a few quotes in a retweet, when I can add something.
Your writing, Rob, sounds like your authentic voice. Who you really are, mostly.
At least sober; there’s some desire to see you when you’re drunk, and what embarrassing stuff you’d say then, but I realize such stuff can’t be unsaid and it’s maybe unwise, and even unfair to your future, especially a future wife.
I love what you have to say about writing, and I copied that C.S. Lewis quote because it articulates so beautifully how I feel about my life's purpose – to understand, to explore, to grow. It also relates directly to something I recently wrote about the centrality of empathy (or even spiritual communion) to Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I was motivated to write this piece for no reason other than the fact that I was mad and had something to say. Of course, I assume no one will read it because I may be the only person who cares about my topic. I am going to follow your example and begin setting aside time every day to write/edit. I am sure that it will annoy me at first because I feel as though I have so much more to read and learn than to say. Thanks for the great post!