😱 You're lazy, vain, and selfish

Just like me and everyone else

Hi Matey ⚓

Let me get to the point because you’re probably busy too.

1/ Quote I’ve been thinking about 📣

“In the first 15 seconds of every new experience, people are lazy, vain, and selfish”

Scott Belsky (Founder of Behance and current Chief Product Officer at Adobe)

I think about this A LOT.

Although the focus of what Scott’s saying is about onboarding users to new products, the sentiment can be applied to all writing.

You can only be a good writer if you consider your reader—a messy, complicated creature.

Good writers are empathetic. They understand their readers could be doing a million other things. So, they take care not to bore, confuse, or make it all too hard.

Because, when writing is good, readers can forget to eat or drink. When it’s really good they can even stave off sleep.

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2/ Some tweet about writing 🐦

John Harrison (''( @johnharrison_io

When you know the destination you want your writing to take, you can figure out a path to lead your reader there. But, it doesn't mean you need to go straight there. It's quicker to take the motorway, but it isn't the most pleasing and memorable route.

If you’re on Twitter too, let’s be mates!

Have a great week,

John

p.s. I really want to help. Real life examples are always enlightening, so why not put your writing in a google doc and share it with me (hello@johnharrison.io). I’ll make some comments and suggestions.