Wanna write better? Read more.
Jul 25, 2024 3:06 pm
Forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now.
Howdy hey ,
(A note: We bumped my speaking event at the Columbia Club to Wed, August 21. I'll share the fresh registration link when it's live. Same offer as before applies :))
---
When's the last time you read something for fun?
If you're like a shocking plurality of students in America, your answer is never. The National Assessment of Educational Progress found that in 2023, only 14% of students read every day, and 31% have never or hardly ever read for fun.
As a newly appointed educator of college students, it saddens me that so many cannot or have not engaged in reading outside of required schoolwork. Reading and writing habits are wound together like muscles. And with any muscle, you gotta exercise it. Once it atrophies, it's a real pain to rebuild — especially as you age, and the obligations of "adulting" mount.
And part of those adulting obligations includes...having a job! Much advice for the newly employed involves reading business books, Forbes articles, and Gartner reports. Aka nonfiction content. Most of these recommendations will invoke the "business mindset" or "effective habit construction."
The top Google results for "books for newly employed."
Throughout this kind of advice runs an undercurrent of "if you're going to bother reading, read nonfiction." Yet, if we're not thoughtful in our approach, this hyper-focus on "nonfiction or else" can end up reinforcing the "reading is not for fun" mindset that damages people's reading and writing muscles.
Read more than business books 🙏
To be clear: there's nothing wrong with enjoying nonfiction books! In fact, adult nonfiction is the top-selling category of print books. I love a detailed biography or an exploration of ancient cultures or a compendium of presidential speeches.
Where people run into trouble is when they limit their selections to one or a few narrow niches. For instance, people think they have to read business books — and only business books — to get the good stuff that leads to business success. To be caught doing otherwise would be almost shameful.
Frankly, I keep a short list of truly good business books, but they exist and can impart great professional writing lessons. For example, I have my second edition copy of Ann Handley's Everybody Writes sitting next to me as I type this.
But a cornucopia of reading options fills the human wellspring. It brings new ideas, concepts, opinions, examples — data — to the repository stored in your head. Artificially limiting that pool by hyper-focusing on a reading niche sees returns diminish quickly.
How do we break those limitations? I've long been a vocal advocate for including fiction books in professional skills development — especially for content creators. And research supports fiction's value in developing stronger, more well-rounded business professionals.
Done well, fiction books can hone business skill sets, improve writing capabilities, and foster more fun with reading.
Expand your writing horizons with reading
We've established that the act of writing is critical to framing high-quality thought. It's how we make sense of all the swirly twirly ideas bouncing around our brains. And we need to challenge and refresh our frameworks and idea sets if we want to achieve high-quality writing expectations.
Reading good fiction books provides example frameworks and practical skills to accomplish exactly that. It's why whenever I speak to groups about writing and storytelling in professional settings, I start with Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. It's such a beautiful story, and every sentence feels like a true artisan lovingly handcrafted it. When I open the book, I stand in awe and pretend not to be envious.
I've learned more about professional storytelling from this one book than from all the business books I've ever read.
Read more fiction books, and you'll grow your storytelling toolset. And as you write, you'll reach back into that toolkit and apply more of what you read. Muscles build together, and muscle memory builds fast.
Plus, adding new exercises to a routine — having fun with it — helps people stick with it. Reading something that's not another business article with a title like "7 Traits of a Kick-Ass Entrepreneur" sure feels novel. And, dare I say it, fun.
So how about a little novel exercise? Before our summer vacations end and kids return to school, I challenge everyone to read a book for fun. I'm sorry to make this "mandated fun," but if that's what it takes, so be it.
The Last Unicorn is a lovely option for an afternoon in the hammock. But really, anything's good. If you want to dive into Colleen Hoover's latest offering, have at it. Momentum beats inertia.
For team leaders, consider starting a company book club. Now, these kinds of groups have a habit of sliding into drink-and-be-merry events, so it takes intentionality to make it work. A few thoughts:
- Peer pressure (or "social influence") is an effective approach to get people to do things. Be the peer who gets people to finish books and engage thoughtfully with the material.
- Prepare discussion questions and actually cover them, like meeting agendas, and distribute beforehand. Again, I apologize for the mandated fun. But denoted expectations will lead to more fulfilling conversations than "show up and talk about stuff."
- Consider giving participants a 30-45 minute "break" during a workday to read and engage with chosen materials (like quiet time in kindergarten). You don't want a book club to feel like extra work — rather, reward participation with a pleasant bonus.
- Sponsor snacks and drinks for book club members, too. A slice of pizza and a can of Diet Coke (or White Claw) can go a long way to convince people to join in and chat.
A healthy reading culture undergirds a strong writing culture. Encourage reading for fun and nurture a reading-first culture, and you'll reap incredible rewards.
§
Stellar content about content
Content creators are going nowhere in the AI era, but their roles are about to change
by Cameron Adams, Canva Co-founder & CPO, published in FastCo
I waffled on putting this one in the newsletter. Some of the article's talking points reflect a floaty, nebulous sense of "AI will make everything better" without solid examples to support those assertions. But I give points to Canva's stance on paying content creators to participate in the Age of AI:
First, creators can only survive if they get paid, and those using tech platforms to produce their work should be compensated for their efforts with royalties.
Canva claims to have earmarked at least $200MM to pay out royalties for creators who submit content to the company's internal AI systems for training and refinement. It's a commendable attempt at a marriage between AI's data thirst and the humans supplying the drinking water. We'll see how it unfolds, but I appreciate Canva's forward-thinking approach.
§
by David Cahn, Sequoia
Hot on the heels of the Canva article, David's post for Sequoia asks the broader AI question: Where's the beef revenue?
The article gets deeper into AI capex, GPU stockpiling, and other details affecting how AI companies can actually make money with their products and services. What stood out to me was this line:
Outside of ChatGPT, how many AI products are consumers really using today? Consider how much value you get from Netflix for $15.49/month or Spotify for $11.99. Long term, AI companies will need to deliver significant value for consumers to continue opening their wallets.
David's assertion is that the time for experimentation (and the massive capital investments supporting it) is ending, and a winnowing of the best AI ideas from the rest is imminent. I'd say this tracks with my belief that smaller, more efficient models tailored to specific business problems will win out over humongous, expensive implementations.
But, we must crawl before we can walk — pour one out for OpenAI paving the way.
§
by Donald Sull and Charles Sull, published in MIT Sloan Management Review
When I've run teams, I broke out my SMART goals sheet like every good lil' manager does. But I always felt a weird, inexplicable feeling whenever I set them — like something was missing.
Fortunately, fresh research from MIT provided me with the answer:
...SMART goals undervalue ambition, focus narrowly on individual performance, and ignore the importance of discussing goals throughout the year.
The article discusses the details behind a new framework, FAST:
- Frequently discussed
- Ambitious
- Specific
- Transparent
If you're building some team or organizational goals (2025 is not that far away), review this article in-depth and pit a set of FAST goals against SMART ones. I'd love to hear the results!
§
Content from my pocket of the galaxy
(Sorry, I'm light on this section for today's issue. I'm neck-deep in syllabus construction and class planning. I should have more for y'all next time.)
🗒️ Writing is a mode of thought
We still dismiss writing as only an act of typing words. But as generative AI industrializes the production of words, it also reminds us how much great writing requires human thinking.
§
See you soon,
Alex
