Write Cause You Have Something to Say

Logan Riggs' post on LessWrong challenges the common advice to 'write every day.' Instead, he argues that successful bloggers like Scott Alexander succeed because they have an overhang of ideas—draft posts, daydreams, and thoughts generated through reading, journaling, conversations, and quiet moments. Riggs explains that simply forcing daily writing without substance leads to Goodharting. He recommends building a backlog of draft ideas (he currently has ~80) by writing down any idea within a minute, which reinforces the idea-generation habit. He also uses babble-writing (typing stream-of-consciousness) as a warm-up.

To reduce friction, Riggs integrates Claude (Anthropic's AI) as an editor and secretary, handling tasks like finding correct links or quotes so he can focus on raw expression. He also advocates voice-to-text for capturing ideas when typing isn't feasible (e.g., in the shower or lying in bed). The core message: prioritize having something to say over hitting a publication quota. His workflow uses Roam Research for drafts, but he avoids the LessWrong editor for raw babble to maintain a lower barrier to entry.