Book released

I was watching a YouTube channel explain why smart people write bad when they mentioned one of my favorite videos, The Craft of Writing Effectively. with Larry McEnerney. Unfortunately, they watered down McEnerney’s message a bit, saying that school teaches us to use writing to demonstrate knowledge when real writing is about communicating ideas.

However, in the video they referenced McEnerney says something much more radical.

You think that writing is communicating your ideas to your readers. It is not. What is professional writing? It’s not conveying your ideas to your readers. It’s changing their ideas. TIMESTAMP

Now I’m thinking in terms of the products I’m developing. I could go into product design and marketing thinking that I’m taking ideas from my head, bringing them into the world, and getting them into the hands of someone else. In that case, my time is best spent generating a lot of new products.

Instead, I should think of my products as ideas participating in “conversations moving through time”.

I’m producing coloring books so I need to find out where conversations about coloring books are happening. How do I enter into those conversations and change people’s minds? One moment, they have no interest in my coloring book. Next moment, it’s in their shopping cart.

I should be engaging in this conversation, especially since I have a fascinating topic of discussion. What do coloring book enthusiasts think about the coming wave of AI art? Are they excited? Are the disgusted? Would they like to see what it can produce?

Well, if so, I have a coloring book for sale on Amazon right now for $5.99.