FAQ: “How do I get better at writing?”
Me: Write a million words.
Follow up: “Hah but seriously.”
Me: Start with 20,000 words. Everyone gets to that 50 times in their first million.
Follow up: “No seriously.”
Me: Nobody expects 10 Quick Tips To Play Violin At Carnegie Hall.
More from Patrick McKenzie
More from Writing
In 2013, I woke up and said, "I want to write a book about Pokémon."
In 2017, I finally wrote it.
In 2019, thanks to the fine folks at @DelReyBooks, you'll all get to read it.
I'm pleased to announce my epic fantasy debut. Formerly: "Fullmetal Pokémist." Now:
STEEL CROW SAGA.
Seriously, everyone, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to share this one with you. The world is far-flung and weird, and the characters live lives so far removed from mine, but STEEL CROW SAGA is honestly the most personal and autobiographical thing I've ever written
Yeah, I guess I should address that early. STEEL CROW SAGA is not a trilogy. This is a standalone book. I left doors open for someday, but my plan right now is for each of these three books to be its own
Last thing I'll say here: I couldn't have asked for a better team than @DelReyBooks to work with--particularly @tnarwani, who just Gets this book. In our call, she casually cited a semi-obscure Korean movie from ten years ago, unaware it'd been a key influence. That's when I knew
Anyway. Plenty more to tease in the coming year. Thanks again to my friends who got me through it, and especially to @dongwon who saw this weird Toonami regurgitation and immediately believed in it. Today is my triumph, but it's also theirs.
In 2017, I finally wrote it.
In 2019, thanks to the fine folks at @DelReyBooks, you'll all get to read it.
I'm pleased to announce my epic fantasy debut. Formerly: "Fullmetal Pokémist." Now:
STEEL CROW SAGA.
Seriously, everyone, I can't tell you how thrilled I am to share this one with you. The world is far-flung and weird, and the characters live lives so far removed from mine, but STEEL CROW SAGA is honestly the most personal and autobiographical thing I've ever written
Yeah, I guess I should address that early. STEEL CROW SAGA is not a trilogy. This is a standalone book. I left doors open for someday, but my plan right now is for each of these three books to be its own
holy crappppppp i see A THREE BOOK DEAL hidden in there too!!!!!!!!
— do i dare to eat a \U0001f351 (@NicasioSilang) October 31, 2018
Last thing I'll say here: I couldn't have asked for a better team than @DelReyBooks to work with--particularly @tnarwani, who just Gets this book. In our call, she casually cited a semi-obscure Korean movie from ten years ago, unaware it'd been a key influence. That's when I knew
Anyway. Plenty more to tease in the coming year. Thanks again to my friends who got me through it, and especially to @dongwon who saw this weird Toonami regurgitation and immediately believed in it. Today is my triumph, but it's also theirs.
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"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018
We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.
Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)
It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.
Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".
THREAD: 12 Things Everyone Should Know About IQ
1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE
2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less. https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n
3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)
(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)
4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.
For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3
5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)
1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE
2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less. https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n
3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)
(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)
4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.
For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3
5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)