A simple formula for writing hooks: "Get 3 yes's in 30 seconds".

Readers should nod their head yes to the headline, subheading, and first sentence.

If they've made it to the third sentence, they're ready for an interesting and compelling story.

💯
Love this book.

Takeaways:

1) Selling a cure is a lot easier than selling a preventative.

2) Never sell a product or service. Always sell a concept.

3) When editing, refine your copy to say exactly what you want to say with the fewest possible words.

amazon.com/Advertising-Se…
The best non-fiction writers borrow the techniques of fiction.

They make the reader forget they're seeing words on paper.

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” - Sol Stein

✍️
A lesson from @michaelpollan:

Writing is a form of music.

Like music, great writing has great rhythm.

The best way is to develop great rhythm is to read great writing before bed.

You do a lot of creative work when you sleep and you want to be in a "rhythm of good prose."

🎶
Great writers unlock the ELECTRICITY of sight.

They give their readers a pair of Magic Binoculars.

"Facts alone aren’t enough. They’re too black-and-white. Readers yearn for stories, images, and anecdotes that make the information POP."

👀

perell.com/blog/robert-ca…
Always stop writing when you know what’s going to happen next.

Wise words from Ernest Hemingway 🤩
When you become a regular writer, you change how you live.

Writing forces you to pay attention.

It takes you to a higher level of perception and makes the world pop.

✍️

perell.com/blog/writing
Style matters.

Nobody has to read what you write, so give people a reason to spend time with you.

"You have to have a HOOK at the beginning and a ZINGER at the end."

- @paulkrugman

💯
Built a daily writing practice.

Days spent not writing are the enemy of productivity.

“Write every single day. Make it a routine. Even if it’s a small amount, I assure you if you write every day it will pile up and you’ll get things done.” - @tylercowen
Simple copy editing tip:

"In your last pass, change the font to something unfamiliar. Then change the font size. When you're familiar with a piece, your eyes gulp whole passages and miss typos. New fonts focus your eyes on each letter."

- @DKThomp
@DKThomp Writing tips from @jasonzweigwsj:

1. Every tweet, text and email is a chance to improve your writing.

2. Writing is like peeling the layers of your own ignorance. Write to learn.

3. When you find a writer you like, read everything they’ve ever written.

jasonzweig.com/on-writing-bet…
Writing falls into 3 buckets:

1. Trivial things that everybody knows.

2. Things that everybody knows, but you have a unique perspective on.

3. Stuff that nobody knows so you have to do tons of research.

Pro-tip: When writing, focus on #2.

Killer insight from @devonzuegel.
Few exercises help clarify your thoughts better than writing.

Transferring vague feelings into words leads to clarity and surprising insights.

"You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn by writing things down, even if no one but you reads them."

- @MorganHousel
At its best, writing is indistinguishable from MUSIC.

“Great writers orchestrate an interplay between tension, suspense, surprise, release, and completion.

It’s wild and sensual, deliberate and controlled, all at once, all carried out with lightness and grace.” - @jasonzweigwsj
@jasonzweigwsj Writing tips from @ScottAdamsSays:

1. Write short sentences.

2. Avoid putting multiple ideas into one sentence.

3. Business writing is about clarity and persuasion.

4. Prune your sentences. Avoid unnecessary words.

5. Your first sentence needs to grab the reader.

💯
Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.

Poor communicators ramble. Good communicators leave out unnecessary details. Great communicators treat words as the scarcest commodity.

(h/t @morganhousel)
Great writing has rhythm.

It's like a dance, and words are the music that create the atmosphere.

The easiest way to add rhythm to your writing is to vary sentence length. Short sentences speed things up, and long sentences slooooooowwwwww things down.

perell.com/blog/the-ultim…
A picture is worth a thousand college writing classes.

💯
"Entrepreneurs are the best business writers in the world. If you can’t write, you can’t raise money. Or recruit. Or sell.

I don’t know a single great entrepreneur who isn’t a great writer."

- @nivi

venturehacks.com/articles/writi…
"Writing is attention to detail.

It's that one detail, that one scrap of dialogue, one color or smell that brings the whole scene to life."
Writing rules from @sapinker.

Simple and sweet.
Look at your fish. Look at your fish. Don’t forget to look at your fish.

🐠

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More from @david_perell

Feb 17
Imitate, then Innovate is my motto for improving at any skill.

Thread:
It’s counterintuitive, but the more we imitate others, the faster we can discover our unique style.

Modern creators do the opposite though.

They stubbornly insist on originality, which they hold as their highest virtue — even when it comes at the expense of quality.
What does productive imitation look like?

Look at Quentin Tarantino. When people think of him, they see a singular talent for making original movies.

But he's famous for building upon scenes from other movies, and once said: “I steal from every single movie ever made.”
Read 16 tweets
Feb 16
Here's what the future of education looks like:

1. Teaching will become an extremely lucrative profession. Salaries will follow a power law. The best teachers will make millions of dollars per year and teach thousands of students every year. In fact, this is already happening.
2. Mass market courses will have Hollywood-level production budgets.

People who teach mass-market subjects like statistics and economics will attract millions of students. Teaching at scale will give them the financial resources to invest in high-end graphics and production.
3. Classes will be big and small.

The education industry is obsessed with the "average class size metric." People think that smaller is always better. Not true. You want scale when you're delivering lectures so you can invest in production. At other times, you want small groups.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 2
My favorite business frameworks:
Strong Culture, Fewer Rules

When a culture is tight-knit, people don't need to be told what to do explicitly. They just copy what everybody else does, which allows them to be entrepreneurial.

But weak cultures need many precise rules to keep people in check.

(Source: Airbnb)
Christensen's Disruptive Innovation Framework

Innovators win market share when they serve a segment of the market that is over-served by incumbents.

Startups offer the exact level of product or service they need and use this wedge to expand market share.

(Source: @SahilBloom)
Read 14 tweets
Jan 30
Why you should write in public:
1. Attract friends and business partners.

It's hard to meet people as passionate about learning as you are.

But when you publish your ideas, you attract people who think like you.

The more niche the topic, the easier it is to attract people on your intellectual wavelength.
2. Writing helps you understand yourself.

All of us have unprocessed feelings and emotions. Writing is the best way to identify what's making you uncomfortable. By writing, you gain clarity in your life.

The increased clarity you receive reduces stress and anxiety in your life.
Read 12 tweets
Jan 18
If you're feeling stuck in your professional life, start writing online.

Here's how it can accelerate your career:
1. Building a Network:

Writing shrinks the world.

Historically, if you wanted to break into an industry, you had to move to its hub. Not anymore. By writing online, you can build a network from your couch.

Meet people online. Then travel to build relationships in person.
2. Building Expertise:

Quality writing begins with clear thinking.

Once you write about a topic, you can speak about it more clearly, which will help you crush job interviews and establish yourself as an authority.

Learn about topics that interest you and share what you learn.
Read 10 tweets
Jan 10
The Inversion of Censorship:
The 20th century had two iconic dystopian novelists: George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.

Everybody knows Orwell's book: 1984. He outlined a dystopian future where censorship comes from banned books and ideas. Without access to truth, people would be passive and easily manipulated.
Orwell's vision became the standard.

Growing up, my book fairs had a "banned books" section. We were rightly encouraged to read them and explore suppressed ideas.

The lesson: In a world of information scarcity, banning information is the most effective form of thought control.
Read 15 tweets

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