Hi! I've been reading a lot of your essays after reading The Revelations (which I LOVE by the way, I can't stop recommending it to my friends. As someone who loves science, philosophy and literature, it's literally my dream book incarnate). I just wanted to say that I really really enjoy your writing and that I've learned so much cause your essays are really informative, but also the way you write makes them so interesting to read!! I’ve laughed, been emotional, and your work has sent me on far too many science rabbit holes. I loved this article as well for shedding some light on your writing process. I’ve had so much fun reading about your theories on the future, how you grew up in a bookstore (a literal dream, by the way, you’re so lucky!!), space billionaires, ufos, and the supersensorium + overfitting brain hypothesis of course. I find it fascinating how you’re able to form so many opinions on so many topics––- that’s something I sort of struggle with cause I feel like it’s way too easy to just accept what I read as truth (especially when reading your work!) so I have to constantly remind myself be on my toes and remember to try to think critically.. I didn’t expect to enjoy reading articles this much. Can’t wait to read more. I’m pretty new to this whole substack/essay thing (I didn't know substack was even a platform that existed before you) so I wanted to also ask if you might be able to recommend any blogs or even authors that write essays of a similar vein to yours? Or any authors whose work you enjoy? Thank you so much! :)
Mia! Thank you so so much for this comment. I really appreciate hearing it. I too worry sometimes about the amount of content writing regular posts like these entails. What I've found is that once you get in the habit of it you begin to notice little things and think "oh that could be an essay." Same for fiction, you spend a lot of time observing life and thinking "oh wait that could be a scene." Like most things, it's not really de novo, rather, it's simply a habit once you start (and the same is even true for proposing scientific hypotheses). So the hardest are the first couple essays, the first couple hypotheses, the first couple scenes, and then it gets much easier. Also I take a LOT of notes whenever something occurs to me, and then if I have enough notes that are enough alike I'll merge them into a paper, an essay, a novel, etc.
As for other substack writers, I don't know of any exactly like me, but I can certainly recommend some that I myself enjoy. Recently Salman Rushdie has started a substack https://salmanrushdie.substack.com/ which I'm intrigued by, since he's such a big name. On the science side I like https://rogersbacon.substack.com/. And on the literary essays side I'd highly recommend you check out https://griefbacon.substack.com/ for her gorgeous writing.
That’s really interesting. I guess the first few steps are really the hardest to take and the most important if you want to do something useful.. Also, thank you so much for the recommendations! Can’t wait to give them a read :D
I really enjoyed reading this article. May your writing be filled with heavy handed richness. It seems that you pulled it off, and then some. Huzzah! "Even if you don’t pull it off, choose something mighty so that at least you fail on the slopes of a great mountain." -Hoel
Hi! I've been reading a lot of your essays after reading The Revelations (which I LOVE by the way, I can't stop recommending it to my friends. As someone who loves science, philosophy and literature, it's literally my dream book incarnate). I just wanted to say that I really really enjoy your writing and that I've learned so much cause your essays are really informative, but also the way you write makes them so interesting to read!! I’ve laughed, been emotional, and your work has sent me on far too many science rabbit holes. I loved this article as well for shedding some light on your writing process. I’ve had so much fun reading about your theories on the future, how you grew up in a bookstore (a literal dream, by the way, you’re so lucky!!), space billionaires, ufos, and the supersensorium + overfitting brain hypothesis of course. I find it fascinating how you’re able to form so many opinions on so many topics––- that’s something I sort of struggle with cause I feel like it’s way too easy to just accept what I read as truth (especially when reading your work!) so I have to constantly remind myself be on my toes and remember to try to think critically.. I didn’t expect to enjoy reading articles this much. Can’t wait to read more. I’m pretty new to this whole substack/essay thing (I didn't know substack was even a platform that existed before you) so I wanted to also ask if you might be able to recommend any blogs or even authors that write essays of a similar vein to yours? Or any authors whose work you enjoy? Thank you so much! :)
Mia! Thank you so so much for this comment. I really appreciate hearing it. I too worry sometimes about the amount of content writing regular posts like these entails. What I've found is that once you get in the habit of it you begin to notice little things and think "oh that could be an essay." Same for fiction, you spend a lot of time observing life and thinking "oh wait that could be a scene." Like most things, it's not really de novo, rather, it's simply a habit once you start (and the same is even true for proposing scientific hypotheses). So the hardest are the first couple essays, the first couple hypotheses, the first couple scenes, and then it gets much easier. Also I take a LOT of notes whenever something occurs to me, and then if I have enough notes that are enough alike I'll merge them into a paper, an essay, a novel, etc.
As for other substack writers, I don't know of any exactly like me, but I can certainly recommend some that I myself enjoy. Recently Salman Rushdie has started a substack https://salmanrushdie.substack.com/ which I'm intrigued by, since he's such a big name. On the science side I like https://rogersbacon.substack.com/. And on the literary essays side I'd highly recommend you check out https://griefbacon.substack.com/ for her gorgeous writing.
That’s really interesting. I guess the first few steps are really the hardest to take and the most important if you want to do something useful.. Also, thank you so much for the recommendations! Can’t wait to give them a read :D
I really enjoyed reading this article. May your writing be filled with heavy handed richness. It seems that you pulled it off, and then some. Huzzah! "Even if you don’t pull it off, choose something mighty so that at least you fail on the slopes of a great mountain." -Hoel
haha - thank you Victoria, I promise to never lighten my hand