## 19:04 substack writing

i've joined a single hour of writing hosted by substack to promote
running substack blogs and connecting others! i'm not super interested
in using the substack platform in particular, but i enjoy the company
and it's cool to participate in community projects like this.

What do I want to get out of Substack? Out of writing?

i want to learn more about myself and my relationship with the world. I
love ava's approach: synthesizing philosophy writing with current events
and experiences, and putting her personal experiences through old ideas.

I enjoy paul graham's perspectives, to a point; he approaches everything
first from the perspective of an engineer, then a historian, then a
founder in his current position – aiming to convey what's best for
founders.

What makes all of the writing I enjoy *interesting* is this
demonstration of abstract emotions through metaphor and parallels drawn
to moments in the personal life of the writer. It's important not to get
too personal – names are deliberately obscured and personal interactions
are mangled, anonymized or sanitized for the sake of narrative – but to
establish a personal connection with the reader it's vital to let them
in. Too personal can be seen as personally invasive or downright
dangerous, revealing circumstances that could compromise your
well-being, safety or career.

Treat the piece as good conversation – your intention is to establish
yourself as the reader's equal, not mentor. Mentorship, like much of
Graham's writing, is completely patronizing. Sure, you can craft a
gallery of admirers if you write well, but as your reader begins to
disagree with your sentiments – inevitable in such an egoist framework –
you become irrespectable. Allow the reader to play an equal part in the
conversation! Provide them an introduction that puts them in the proper
frame of mind. Once they're thinking like you, you can develop a path
they can follow into your own life experiences: one that helps them
learn about you just as much as it does about themselves.

Weave in and out of anecdotes with personal references and effects.
Without these, you haven't given the audience other ways to interact
with the ideas. There is no such thing as writing without reference, and
by explicitly citing them we include them in the conversation, too. This
gives your reader the saem understanding of the material you, as the
writer have – and when they see eye to eye, they can make the same
connections to their lives that you can.

Try to impart a tidbit of a life lesson in each passage. Don't treat
this as something you *know* and feel that you *have* to convey to the
reader; treat the information you're imparting as a way you feel or a
perspective you have on a part of your life, and try to figure out how
to share that with them – and encourage them to adopt the practice as
well.

There are not good writers, only good editors – we can start by writing
what we know, but this isn't worthy of publication until it's edited
several times. Become your own editor and master the craft!

"If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've
launched too late." – Reid Hoffman

What do I want to write about? What do I bring to others that's
valuable?

- Technical knowledge. I've done a lot of research about many software
  tools and I've programmed enough to know how to use many of them.
- Crafting a minimal lifestyle. Learning to live and travel with less.
- Developing taste. I know what objects I'm interested in, what I like
  wearing and how I like my spaces to look.

I don't necessarily have to write about things I have experience with
already; rather, the act of writing can be a jumping off point for
research and ideas to spring up! This holds for any subject – starting
to *do* will start things off better than any other effort. Of course,
it's much more difficult to research Foulcaultian ideas than it is to
debug some code or read some new documentation – but it's valuable
nonetheless!

## 23:41 good resources for creative branding and making clothes

<https://virgilabloh.com/free-game/> [how to screen
print](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSpsWewtxXw) [how to find blanks
to print to](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFagJKMgo84) figures of
speech catalog [peter saville, building the
brand](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAO3kGA27Jg) [marc jacob
louis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2a68oZxdfM)
[alife](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcYmeXYSjgQ)
[yohji](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9JOvFEjGes)

### photo

[how to shoot a lookbook](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEg0HCtgCjg)
[how to be a radical
photographer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gdFwKiKf_8) [film and
shoot lookbook on iphone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCBVl2mLOfE)