November 5,2024

last update: 2024-11-07

I write a lot. and I forget a lot.

Taking a lot of notes is part of how I stay sane and get even part of the things that I want to get done.

It helps crystallize my ideas, understand complex stuff, etc. Often times even reduce anger.

So it means a lot to me that I improve my writing for other people to understand and operate.

Notes from Larry’s lecture

handouts are here

Writing is not primitive task. Writing is not something you learn early and stop learning for the rest of your life

Rule Governed training, Used for people with a lot of writing of relatively low value. Hence, it is of no value.

Expert writers

• Does not mean, Expert at writing.
• But someone who’s an expert at something
• On the frontier of knowledge

Thinking —–> World model

Writing to help yourself think Is drastically different than writing to convey something to someone else.

Experts use one set of pattern to do the thinking. But use a different pattern to read. There is a fundamental mismatch in this.

When you don’t write in the way for someone to read. People,

• slow down - have to re-read multiple times
• get Frustrated
• quit

When people don’t need (unlike people who are paid to do it like teachers, TA, etc.) to read it, they’re not going to re-read it and that’s a problem

You’ve learned in a system where people are paid to read about it. So The rules you were taught are wrong.

Beyond the school, nobody is paid to care about your writing.

Somebody is reading your work, because it is valuable to them.

Fundamentally Writing needs to be, Clear, Organized and Persuasive. But, the most important thing is It needs to be VALUABLE and that is the only important thing.

If something is, clear + useless it’s useless Organized + useless it’s useless

All the value of your thinking lies in the readers

Focus on the readers before you even start writing. They’re the one who is finding it valuable.

Differences between readers

Except in the world of standardized tests Readers differ in the way they operate.

When we say, your writing doesn’t sound Important.

People assume it’s because the reader did not understand the writing, and start explaining what is happening in the inside of our head.

Explaining is failure. explaining means you’ve already went wrong. You have to argue, why you’re right.

You think writing is communicating your idea to readers. It is not

Writing is changing the reader’s idea.

Only a teacher wants to understand what’s happening in your head.

People want to understand how it can change their life.

Nothing is knowledge without someone competent enough to challenge it.

^^^ This is an important idea because knowledge gets validity by surviving challenges. The more challenges it faces the stronger it gets. Without challenge (such as in a Phd dissertation) There is no knowledge or the knowledge produce has zero value.

You’re not here to do original work. You are here to create valuable work

Positivistic world -> where every new Knowledge is an addition of ideas.

^^^ This view of the world is wrong

There are conversations moving through time and some people get to say what knowledge is.

This is a problem.

But these people (readers) get to say what counts as knowledge.

And that’s how it works.

Literally saying that something “is important” does not make it important.

The code

Every community has a set of codes.

These codes communicate value.

Understand the words of the reader community and what they deem important.

half the time in a phd is spent learning and the other half is spent in understanding the readers.

Without understanding the readers intimately. How are you going to convince them that you’ve produced something important.

Being clear is not about transitions

And -> you have something to add.

But -> leads to “…you’re wrong”.

the “code” at least in education is to say wow what an incredible job you’ve done. I have something to add to this knowledge.

Do not explain about something. Argue why they might be wrong.

Knowledge is created because it is challenged. and understanding the code is important to challenge being politically correct.

Essays

Anything you write should help your reader understand something.

The function of writing is understanding for the user.

Participation in the world, not by sharing your feeling. But by changing other people’s ideas.

Writing is not communicating anything about you. It is changing others.

Use of an academic writing to change someone’s perspective.

A professor’s knowledge is not about how much she knows. Leotard says knowledge is not about what they have in their head. But what they’ve done in the space between heads.

Revealing the inside of your head is not the idea.

That is your own relationship with your own knowledge. similar to the farmer -> wheat. fisherman -> fish.

The wheat/fish should become valuable to someone else.

Martini glass model of writing. Start with a generalization -> go to a thesis -> end with a generalization ^^ you don’t want to do it.

Start with the reader’s problem. Not your problem.

Problem should be something the reader’s care about and fix.

A Thesis is a solution to a problem. So the problem should be there.

Problem

Always start with the problem. because this justifies why the reader should care about your work. Give them that.

A problem is usually,

1. The situation has some instability.
2. Cost/benefit because of the instability

Readers are trying to understand inconsistency, instability and discontinuity. They’re expecting tension in a problem.

Lit Review

function of lit review

• Ego massaging
• Credibility
• What you’re challenging

Good Lit Review to enrich the problem.

Hyping the tension increases the importance of your work. Based on the Lit Review

We’re driving a wedge on the instability.

Start with Building a problem Don’t give a background.

Don’t explain. Argue. Argue why they have to care about it

Knowledge is not bounded.

Ref

• Craft of Writing Effectively