1) physical pen and paper for initial thinking, I came to the same conclusion independently. Now I start every new issue with a brainstorm + outline on paper before moving it to Notion where I type it up
2) the thing you learned on how complex it is. I'm realizing the exact same thing. From covering a new area in climate every two weeks, I keep noticing that they're also somehow intertwined. The clearest example of this is with renewable energy <> skilled labor shortage <> supply chain <> home electrification. But even just yesterday, I was talking to a founder of a indoor agriculture startup and we ended up talking about energy prices and HVAC systems. Crazy how this complexity stuff keeps popping up
I think there's a lot of time in ambient research, basically reading a ton of stuff at all times and having some sort of logging system for when I read something interesting that I have no immediate use for but I have a hunch will come in handy later. I just copy the link and paste it into a notion page, it's pretty simple.
I think the other thing is trying to write one piece at a time and only focusing on that thing for a stretch of a few days. So in that timeframe, even when I'm walking or doing something else, I'm thinking about what I'm trying to write.
And the last thing I can think of is not scheduling much on days I write because I have this bad habit of procrastinating on writing until later in the day and then I hit a groove and end up writing way later in the day than I had originally planned.
I think two things caught my attention:
1) physical pen and paper for initial thinking, I came to the same conclusion independently. Now I start every new issue with a brainstorm + outline on paper before moving it to Notion where I type it up
2) the thing you learned on how complex it is. I'm realizing the exact same thing. From covering a new area in climate every two weeks, I keep noticing that they're also somehow intertwined. The clearest example of this is with renewable energy <> skilled labor shortage <> supply chain <> home electrification. But even just yesterday, I was talking to a founder of a indoor agriculture startup and we ended up talking about energy prices and HVAC systems. Crazy how this complexity stuff keeps popping up
Matt, thanks for your comment.
re:1 → glad to hear that you're also finding the good'ol pen&paper beneficial in your process. Anything else that has helped in your workflow?
re:2 → amen. it's an infinite hole 🕳
I think there's a lot of time in ambient research, basically reading a ton of stuff at all times and having some sort of logging system for when I read something interesting that I have no immediate use for but I have a hunch will come in handy later. I just copy the link and paste it into a notion page, it's pretty simple.
I think the other thing is trying to write one piece at a time and only focusing on that thing for a stretch of a few days. So in that timeframe, even when I'm walking or doing something else, I'm thinking about what I'm trying to write.
And the last thing I can think of is not scheduling much on days I write because I have this bad habit of procrastinating on writing until later in the day and then I hit a groove and end up writing way later in the day than I had originally planned.