Harvard Professor Explains The Rules of Writing — Steven Pinker

26 thoughts on “Harvard Professor Explains The Rules of Writing — Steven Pinker”

1. Some lessons I picked up from the interview:

   1. The curse of knowledge is the biggest threat to clear writing.

   2. It can be harder to write about a topic you’re an expert in because it’s so easy to forget what it's like to not know something, which makes you overestimate what the reader knows.

   3. The easiest way to fight this curse of knowledge is to show drafts of your writing to people outside your field.

   4. Shakespeare said: "Brevity is the soul of wit." The point is that saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better because it requires less cognitive load for the reader to understand.

   5. Ok, let's try again: Saying something in fewer words will almost always make it better.

   6. Ok, one more time: Remove needless words.

   7. One reason why writing is harder than speaking is there's no real-time feedback. You have to imagine the audience's reaction.

   8. The best thing you can say about how LLMs write is that the sentence structure is sound. But the downside is how generic and banal the outputs are.

   9. 18th and 19th century writing is more vivid because the abstractions that modern writers use hadn't been invented yet. Calling somebody "pathologically aggressive" isn’t nearly as vivid as saying: "They grabbed me by the throat."

   10. Generalizations without examples are useless, and examples without generalizations are pointless. You need to marry them both. Generalizations show the big picture. Examples make them concrete.

   11. The more vivid a piece of writing, the more people can form a mental image of what you’re saying. Avoid abstractions: frameworks, paradigms, concepts. All those things. Get concrete, so people can see what you’re actually talking about. For example, don’t talk about a “stimulus that awakened your senses” when you can say: “I got excited because I saw a cute bunny rabbit.”

   12. Academic writing should be clear. I mean… if the taxpayers are funding most of the research, shouldn’t they be able to understand it?

2. this guy really knows his stuff

3. this dude really knows his stuff

4. ok but how do i make my writing more visual?

5. this dude really knows his stuff

6. the part about bad writing hit hard lol

7. wow never thought about writing like that

8. The discussion on empathy really resonated with me. Olovka’s approach to learning makes studying more meaningful.

9. ok but how do i make my writing more visual?

10. this dude really knows his stuff

11. never thought about writing this way before

12. very cool insights on writing tbh

13. Understanding your audience is key, like Pinker says. Olovka helps me organize my research and keep my writing on track.

14. i always wondered about bad writing lol

15. i always wondered about bad writing lol

16. Here is a free writing session for those suffering from the writer's block: Let's write together!
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYcTfmlG2-Q

17. LLM AI output is that style because it's programmed that way, so it's easy to understand, I think it could easily do any other type, if it was programmed that way

18. VERY INTERESTING VIDEO;
    DEAR DR. PINKER!

    I am absolutely enchanted with Dr. Pinker's answers during this interview'! Thank you so much, and for providing a host who listened to his guest;Many assert so much of their own need to be heard, they interrupt and often even insult their guests! I'm a person whose right brain and left brain seemingly continually to be in constant battle with each other. Perhaps this is the man who can answer some questions for me?I recently met singers in Italy, who speak so much more eloquent English than I; And I've been educated to teach others English(K-12 specifically). I'm extremely concerned that for some "reason," or , ha, lack of "good logical reasoning," English would be so impossible for foreigners to "learn to speak" in? (I know that's a big grammatically "off,") The words Dr. Pinker zeroed in on, such as olive oil, verse baby oil, seem to be low on the totem pole of the concept—For example, why are there six syllable words, whose same meanings can be stated in two or three words even in existence? I often wonder if they were "invented," specifically for SPEAKERS to be able to intimate their audiences! ("Look at me, I can use six syllable words that you, my audience will have to pause and disconnect from what I'm saying, just to question them?") It seems to emit a sort of unnecessary arrogance.
    
    Of course, to ME, personally, if words emit no real "feeling," while riding on the wings of a decent melody. well, I just probably would not want to use them. When I was singing in nite club environments years ago, members of the audience complimenting me on my melodies, would invariably ask…They'd say,"We love your original melodies…but we want to ask where do melodies come from? (Sorry my grammatical etiquette is lacking there-think I have a quote IN a quote?) I finally tried to GIVE them that answer. I said " melodies are out there in the atmosphere, and if the right word is spoken, they come down and attach themselves to the words FOR me!" Surely most of those questioning me had heard the phrase, "On the wings of a snow-white dove, he sends his pure sweet love," and I often have wondered, myself " HOW am I even able to "recognize," the appropriateness of the notes, or melody, in order to apply the word TO it? When Dr. Pinker says there's a "rhythm" in some phrases-Certainly there is, and there apparently are many "different" rhythms, or "flow " of the words, ah, we term "lyrics." Some songwriters, are "writers" who search for melodies to which they can "apply" the lyrics; others feel the flow of the melodies simultaneously with the flow of the lyrics. I've caught myself doing both. In hiring a singer in France and Italy, I've become so curious about voice that can emit the lyrical "meaning," of a song, and split up the syllables in their language (or languageS) in order to make the words actually "state"/sing, the meaning-Of course in Italy, MANY singers have studied over three languages when they were young, and they seem to have no problems with it. BUT having been trained in French, Spanish and Italian. and English as well…certainly MUST have great difficulty transcribing AND speaking or singing, the SAME MEANINGS, in English! To me, the whole situation with them is quite mesmerizing! So too, was this interview-Thank you so much, and for providing a host who listened to his guest-Many assert so much of their own need to be heard, they interrupt and often even insult their guests! (The name Letterman comes to mind, sorry!)
    
    Some day after I can figure out how foreign speaking singers can be so eloquent in their third language (English) I shall then ask if ANY tests have been made on the question of , " Is poor spelling on the behalf of a writer, indicative of low intelligence?" I've "seen" from my high school counselor, my IQ Numbers-And since my communications with these singers, I've come to the conclusion that I really am stupid!

    Sincerely,

    LyndaFayeSmusic@Gmail
    
    "Listen to Your Heart This Time"
    
    " The Little Blue Mermaid," by Ana Marie Ceuca (in Italian, French & English)
    
    "All Ya Got is Words,"
    
    "Opera at its Worst!?
    
    ""Honey Rewrites Vivaldi and Fears the Wolf Gang!"
    
    Musical Comedies for Children

19. "I write for these people"

20. Gurl, that 'mm-hmm' throughout the interview is so endearing.

    Y'all, that's not the only thing I gleaned from the video! Peace.

21. The interviewer’s constant “mm-hmm” sounds are distracting and unnecessary. We can already tell you’re engaged; there’s no need to keep breaking the flow with those interruptions.

22. Freedom of expression with limitations WOW no wonder in the past all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others George Orwell 😮

23. (I’m an engineering student analyzing problems in companies, and I propose solutions based on a theoretical framework.) When I submit my academic reports, I often face this exact dilemma – how to find the right balance in a product that’s aimed both at the university and at the company, which often doesn’t have "process nerds" on staff So far, I’ve managed to create reports that companies have praised, saying: “Finally something in understandble language!”, while still being accepted by the university. I would have loved something with this approach, where I study – (in Denmark) we have an expression “at skære det ud i pap” tranclate to :(to cut it out cardboard), which means something along the lines of it being manifest in simpel form so any one can understand its meaning.”

24. Pinker is not exactly intelligent.

25. Great interview! Thank you!

26. Can you sense the ambiguity of room's atmosphere by looking at one man with sweater and other in half tshirt. My genuine doubt- what's the room temperature? 😂

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