Before we get to craft and monetisation, you need to understand what's shifting. These five essays are the contextual frame. They explain why this moment is different, what's at stake, and why writing — specifically public writing — is the skill that matters most right now.
Alex McCann — Still Wandering
Most jobs exist for the sake of existing. We attend meetings about meetings. We create decks that no one reads. And deep down, most of us know it. McCann calls this the Great Pretending — and what's different now is that everyone knows everyone knows it.
When I read this essay, something clicked. Most full-time jobs can be boring, and that's just what it is. But writing helps. Because writing is a form of thinking. When you sit down and write about something you're genuinely interested in, you start attracting people who are interested in the same thing. That's leverage — whether you're inside a company, building a business, or figuring out what comes next. Writing doesn't fix a boring job, but it can quietly build you a way out of it.
Alex McCann — Still Wandering
The problem isn't laziness or lack of ambition. McCann argues it's a lack of information: most people are trying to make the most important decision of their lives without useful data about who they actually are.
My take: writing is one of the best tools we have for figuring that out, and it doesn't have to be public. It doesn't have to be a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, or a Substack. It can just be your diary, a private document, a note app you open at 11pm. Writing privately helps you think better, reflect better, and learn and unlearn about the world around you at your own pace. The creative side of you that feels stuck? Writing has a way of bringing it out, quietly, without an audience, before you're ready for one.
How AI is quietly reshaping your cognition — and what to do about it