How Blogging Made This Investor a Deca-Millionaire | Chris Dixon | How I Write Podcast

Chris Dixon is the perfect example of how learning in public can catapult you to success. Come learn how he went from writer to owner, and how you can, too.
SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: cdixon.org/
Twitter: / cdixon
Blog: cdixon.substack.com/subscribe
Book: www.amazon.com/Read-Write-Own...
KZbin: / @chrismdixon10
WRITE OF PASSAGE:
Want to learn more about the next class Write of Passage?
take.writeofpassage.school/wr...
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:56 Early Career
00:06:40 Social Networks
00:10:11 Engineering and Writing
00:17:30 Writing and coding
00:18:30 Structuring
00:21:00 Editing
00:25:00 Software as lego bricks
00:31:50 Read Write Own
00:35:17 Writing a book
00:39:30 Writing process
00:43:45 Editing process
00:48:10 Business models of writing
00:59:35 What is your secret?
01:01:30 Your core idea
01:05:30 1000 true fans, or not?
01:11:30 Internet creators
01:14:30 AI and writing
01:20:55 Recency bias
PODCAST LINKS:
Website: writeofpassage.school/how-i-w...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSbo...
ABOUT THE HOST:
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.

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Chris and I discussed the power law of writing, why books are meme delivery vehicles, and more. My takeaways: 1. Why write a book? Books are meme delivery vehicles, and memes are the code that societies run on. 2. Another reason to write a book: Books are “canon events.” A 200-page book won't be read as many times as a 20 second TikTok will be seen, but the odds that the book will spark off canonical change in society or somebody's life are much higher. 3. What the smartest people do on the weekend is what everyone else will do during the week in ten years. 4. People like people: As more people hide behind jargon and milquetoast AI-generated text, the returns to writing authentically will go up. 5. Humans like humans: Computers got better at chess than humans 20 years ago but chess has more fans than ever before. Art will be no different. Writers and designers worry about being replaced by AI but if they just focus on creating work that other humans enjoy, they’ll be fine. 6. Avoid “crutch words” that prop up bland writing. Here’s an example. Instead of saying a house fire was “very bad,” show a kid’s burnt sock on the pavement. 7. Philosophy is the act of making distinctions. Writers who slice up the world in new ways are read, remembered, and recommended. 8. The power law of writing: Most of what you write will be forgotten, a small percentage will be quoted years later. A blog is a self-regulating machine because no one pays attention to your bad posts. The attention economy is kind enough to only remember your home runs. Embrace volume (especially in the early days). 9. Muscles are built in the gym, and ideas in conversation. Chris uses intellectual sparring to sharpen his ideas. His popular dictum- “Come for the tool, stay for the network”-first came up in conversation with a startup founder. 10. In the tech world, writing is one of the quickest ways to build a reputation and jump ahead. It also helps organize your thoughts and debug half-baked ideas. 11. The demand for good writing exceeds supply, which means there's a hungry audience for people with domain expertise or a profound story to tell. 12. Jeff Bezos has a famous line: “Your margin is my opportunity.” A similar thing holds true for writing: “Your ignorance is my opportunity.” So if there’s something important that most people don’t understand, don’t despair. Write about it.

[@vic_and_hugh]

The Chris Dixon TSUNAMI in my pod feeds over the last 48 hours is impressive. He's one of my favorite thinkers in the space, but def didn't expect an appearance on How I Write Perell on a first name basis with all the cool kids. Love to see it

[@Eggs-n-Jakey]

Personally feel like this is one of the most important books in internet history. Gives hope for the future.

[@pushkarsingh3842]

the title has changed 3 times until I have completed the episode

[@iamravjot]

'Philosophy is the act of making distinctions. Writers who slice up the world in new ways are read, remembered, and recommended.' Got a new definition of Philosophy today that have potential to change the trajectory of my life. Thanks Chris and David!

[@pavilova29]

We need a Seth Godin podcast!

[@tobitotheworld4805]

for real!! it’ll definitely be the most watched instantly. His unconventional idea is needed at the “How I Write” high table.

[@vic_and_hugh]

My suggestions! Naval (single most dense insights per char online) Charles Eisenstein (My fav internet essayist) Anne-laure Le Cunff Packy (poster child for consistent online writing producing meteoric rise) Paul Graham (obv) Maria popova

[@chileab.]

@@vic_and_hughNever heard of Anne-laure before. Thanks for the plug!

[@mchu7371]

Pls!!! + naval!!!

[@iAmWriting247]

Excited for this!

[@samhayek_]

Epic interviews David. Love these.

[@80X20FitnessXFinance]

Very interesting, thanks!

[@Soccolich]

Watching now!

[@kingkefa7130]

Great podcast. I feel some of the podcast episodes can fall deep into vagueness, philosophizing and "mindset" side of writing. It's not like that here and that's great.