Show content
Listen to the audio, watch the video, or check out the Show Notes for a summary, key takeaways, and links to people, content, and tools we mention.
Audio
Listen on Spotify:
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
Listen on Substack:
Video
Summary
Over the last few weeks, advice for giving AI writing rules has circulated on X and LinkedIn. Surprisingly, the rules are old: Orwell’s 6 rules for writing was one set, and they were published in 1946.
Eric works as a writer at Vercel, and John asks him for a full breakdown of how he and his team use AI. He learns that:
Even though the content at Vercel requires deep technical expertise to create, Eric’s hires for excellent writing first
Half or more of his token budget for AI in writing goes to research, and a quarter goes to review and refinement (as opposed to generating final copy)
Great writers are constantly frustrated with AI, which is a sign that they are doing the work
Eric walks through some specifics of how he uses AI, and explains that writing is different than generating code because code is a means to an end (a product, a report), while in writing words are the product itself, and the meaning is much more subjective.
John has Eric work through Orwell’s Six Rules as well as a few from Strunk and White’s classic Elements of Style, and learns that Eric’s most frequent editing feedback is asking, “What are we actually trying to say here?” Eric also points out that great writers know when to break the rules, and that’s hard for AI to do well.
Eric lands the show with advice for writers: if you give AI a sound argument and narrative arc, it can generate a pretty good draft, but then you’ve already done the hard part of writing yourself.
Key takeaways
Great writers still write: AI is a very useful tool for writing, but talented writers deal in human ideas and use AI for research and editing, not for outsourced thinking.
When writing, AI should be frustrating: Writing is an iterative process, and AI is sycophantic. A good sign you’re using AI well is disagreeing with it often.
Conviction and narrative are still human work: The best AI output for writing comes from the best human input, which at the end of the day is a lot of hard thinking.
Notable mentions and links
George Orwell’s Politics of the English Language has his six rules for writing, and is a great resource for any writer
The Elements of Style is a classic guide for clean, clear writing
Cormac McCarthy is mentioned as a master of breaking writing rules.
David McCullough is one of Eric’s favorite authors, and once said “Writing is a great deal of hard thinking.”