Writing: A Series
On effective use of the written word.
Make the Thing a Link
A quick way to level up prose.
Links rock. An awesome habit when writing – for example, in a Slack message or doc – is to add a link to the thing you’re talking about. We’ve updated the Octopus Report, which you can find here. Feedback is due by Friday. Cool. Now people don’t need to hunt...
Someone Wants to Learn From You
How writing habits pay odd dividends.
It’s common for people to feel hesitant about writing. Before somebody even types a word, I often hear objections like “I don’t have anything important to say” or “I couldn’t really add anything, I’m not enough of an expert.” If that’s the kind of thing you might say, I have...
Coda vs. Notion, and Emoji Pickers
On tools for building knowledge together.
At Steamclock, we like to share docs. Guides, notes, plans – writing helps get think and working more asynchronously. Google Docs is okay for this purpose, but by early 2021, we knew we’d outgrown it. We’d seen glimpses of what more modern knowledge base and note-taking apps could do, and...
How to Write Docs People Read
On the power of a guide.
I like to write. Well, I like to have written. And I especially like when people read what I’ve written, and find it useful. It brings me joy. Writing useful things also helps me do my job. When you’re growing a team, you only get so far on oral tradition,...
Making a List, Bolding It Twice
One weird trick for writing readable lists.
Writing is meant for reading. Sometimes, the reading doesn’t matter that much. We might dash off a quick text, toss out a laugh line, or send a rote confirmation. Our emoji are leaves on the wind. Other times though, the reading matters a lot. Occasionally we need to write something...