Steven Pinker on Writing Rules 📚

I’m here at Harvard in the office of Steven Pinker. He’s written nine books and spent his life studying language, cognition, and writing. In this interview, we started with the practical: the rules of writing. But what makes him unique is that he’s been thinking about AI since the 1980s. So if you’re interested in doing great non-fiction writing in the age of LLMs, this interview is for you.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:28 Why Is There So Much Bad Writing
00:07:05 How To Make Your Writing Visual
00:11:50 What Makes Writing So Much Harder Than Speaking
00:14:18 Why Examples Without Context Are Useless
00:20:07 What Makes Writing Beautiful
00:22:35 Why Academics Are Such Terrible Writers
00:25:14 What Kids Teach Us About Clear Explanations
00:28:33 Why Shorter Writing Is Always Better
00:34:53 Why AI Writing Feels So Bland
00:41:16 How AI Would Rewrite My Books

Hey! I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

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