March 6, 2026 at 12:00 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Writing as an Art and a Job
March 6, 2026 at 9:13 am
What works for me is the Disney method. Write the ideas down, don't critique or polish at the idea stage (dreamer stage). I was introduced to the Disney method during a management training exercise at work. You get a lot more ideas recorded this way. Perhaps ideas 2, 6 and 15 are the best. If you critique and/or polish prematurely, then you won't get as far as idea 6, much less idea 15.
When moving to polishing mode, I used the plug-ins in the "write for us" part of this site to improve readability.
Away from this site, I use Grammarly. I also use ChatGPT, Claude, CoPilot, etc., with a prompt to the LLM of choice to make optimisation suggestions based on the four facets above.
ChatGPT can make more than one suggestion. When it does so, it will show both side by side so you can judge which, if any, is best. Even if neither suggestion matches what you need, they will make you think, and perhaps adjust your writing.
At my place of work, we have an AI setup that allows any member of staff to write a blog post. The AI takes their writing and applies the company's writing style and tone of voice
March 6, 2026 at 2:57 pm
Good morning Steve. Your writing about writing this morning made me think. And isn't that what writing is supposed to be all about?
I think you point out precisely the problem with much writing. It's becomes about timing and quantity (job) instead of quality (art).
Frankly I have never paid attention to how frequently you write on SSC, but I read what you write for the content and the thoughts you convey.
You may have seen something I wrote on SSC recently somewhat related to this. I intended to ask a question, but most of the responses castigated me for about HOW I asked the question instead of about an answer. In that context it was about the information conveyed in error messages produced by software.
I agree that writing does reveal powers of observation. Like you, I have for a nummber of years used OneNote on my computer to collect information of value - to me. Among other things I have recorded are three fairly long documents that are labeled Bits-o-Wisdom-1, 2, and 3. Periodically I review this collection simmply to refresh my thinking about many things in my life.
And another aside: Is this a danger of the whole AI thing? People seem to be using AI to provide 'quick and dirty' answers to their queries instead of concise and well-thought-out responses.
So keep on writing 'when you damn well feel like it'.
Rick
If you do a half-assed job of things, folks will ask 'why did this ass only do half the job?'
March 6, 2026 at 3:08 pm
I'll also throw in here a bit of humor I experienced last Monday that illustrated the art of writing.
I had a medical appointment to which my wife and daughter-in-law accompanied me. After the appointment I received an email with a summary. One of the comments reported was:
"Family is concerned about SOB".
OK, what is your first reaction to that?
Then when I did an online search, I find that in the medical context, SOB actually means "shortness of breath".
I just read another humorous (to me) news headline:
"US economy shed 92K jobs in February, well below expectations?"
Does this mean the current drop is less than expected or that the end result is less than expected?
Rick
If you do a half-assed job of things, folks will ask 'why did this ass only do half the job?'
March 6, 2026 at 6:26 pm
Then when I did an online search, I find that in the medical context, SOB actually means "shortness of breath".
I knew about GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Limited Intelligence...etc) and FLK (funny looking kid).
Hope the SOB is OK. Truly a post for what the internet should be used for. An excellent start to the weekend.
March 6, 2026 at 8:07 pm
What works for me is the Disney method. Write the ideas down, don't critique or polish at the idea stage (dreamer stage). I was introduced to the Disney method during a management training exercise at work. You get a lot more ideas recorded this way. Perhaps ideas 2, 6 and 15 are the best. If you critique and/or polish prematurely, then you won't get as far as idea 6, much less idea 15.
...
I like that, and I find that I will bounce some ideas off an AI. I usually throw away most of what it returns, but it does get me to think and it is helpful sometimes to review and organize my wild way of thinking
March 6, 2026 at 8:19 pm
And another aside: Is this a danger of the whole AI thing? People seem to be using AI to provide 'quick and dirty' answers to their queries instead of concise and well-thought-out responses.
Yes, and a separation in the future will be using AI to help with thoughtful responses v using AI to do your work. Plenty of people will do the latter, like they copy/paste from here or Stack or somewhere. They are the lower level performers, and I keep seeing more of them weeded out of orgs.
AI will make that worse.
AI will also create lots of poorly written things, which is where we are now with so many journalists and orgs not providing much value in their published works. Unfortunately, that's just a state of the world.
March 9, 2026 at 3:57 pm
Thanks, glad they enjoyed it.
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