The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online: Letting the Interest Graph Guide You

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online: Letting the Interest Graph Guide You

For the first time in my life, I made use of the information I consumed. The friends I made shared my obsession with ideas. As I published, I realized that everything I wrote was a magnet to attract opportunities that felt like magic in the moment. Five years later, I can say that writing on the Internet is among the best life decisions I’ve made. The 90 minutes I spend writing every morning is my most important habit and the activation code for just about everything good that happens to me.

Writing in Public is the art of broadcasting your ideas to the Internet so you become a beacon for people, opportunities, and serendipity. The game of online writing rewards people who publish consistently. Though frequency is the price of entry, quality writing is a force multiplier on your success. If your ideas resonate, the number of opportunities available to you will explode.

Writing from Abundance is the art of collecting ideas so you can think better and avoid writer’s block. Writing from Conversation is the art of using dialogue to identify your best ideas and double down on them. Build a bank of inspiration while you’re away from the computer and before you sit down to write. Capture your epiphanies. Save the best quotes you read. Identify ideas that resonate with you and jot them down as notes. If you capture ideas when they’re in the forefront of your mind, you won’t have to pray for them to come back when it’s time to write. Every great writer I know obsessively curates their information diet. They rightfully know that high-quality writing begins with good taste for what you consume. It’s easier to have unique ideas when you read things other people don’t.

We’re trapped in a Never-Ending Now — blind to history, engulfed in the present moment, overwhelmed by the slightest breeze of chaos. Here’s the bottom line: You should prioritize the accumulated wisdom of humanity over what’s trending on Twitter. Find people whose recommendations you consistently enjoy and subscribe to their newsletters. It’s not enough just to binge eBooks and list a stat on your website. You should save the best parts of what you read, so you can easily reference them later. Being a writer doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice huge swaths of your life. You don’t need to bunker down in a library for days straight in order to find inspiration. You already consume media, have thoughts, and write ideas in group chats. When you practice the habit of capturing what’s already happening, you’ll find that you have all the material you need to start writing. Effective ambient research happens when you capture the best ideas you consume, the epiphanies you have, and the things you’ve already written to friends and colleagues.

When I come across an interesting article, I save it to an app that automatically downloads it to my phone so I can read it later. Saving these articles gets me out of a reactivity loop, where I read things immediately after I find them. I want my reading to be much more intentional than that. By saving articles to an app and refusing to instantly read things you come across on the Internet, you raise the bar for what grabs your attention. With a Read-it-Later app, whenever you sit down to read, you have hundreds of articles to choose from. You can allocate your attention to the best one. The clarity of memory decays quickly, so we shouldn’t just save other people’s ideas. We should save our own ideas too. Until we have a central place to capture our best thinking, the joy of epiphany will turn into the anxiety of forgetfulness. Chances are, you’re already generating ideas. You just don’t realize it yet. Note-taking works best when the ideas are saved in a central location that contains the best reading and thinking you’ve ever done. The easier it is to search those notes, the faster you’ll be able to find them.

Study the writing practices of history’s top writers and you may be surprised by how many kept a commonplace book. A commonplace book is a central place where you can save ideas, quotes, epiphanies, photos, drawings, and whatever else you want to remember. So long as (1) you can capture ideas quickly, and (2) all those ideas go into the same place, you’re setting yourself up to Write from Abundance. It doesn’t really matter what note-taking app you use. I start my essays in split-screen mode. On the left side of the screen, I have my notes. On the right, my blank document. To fill up the blank page and give myself momentum, I’ll run a few searches through my note-taking system, and copy & paste the best stuff onto my new essay document.

Now, let's talk about how letting the Interest Graph guide you can enhance your writing journey. Social media apps like TikTok and Twitter rely on Interest Graphs in order to laser-focus their recommendations of brand new content to an audience. The app’s machine learning algorithm will "grasp" their preferences. The success behind TikTok is the fact that people care about things that they’re interested in, not people themselves. What we enjoy is finding people who are like ourselves in some aspects, so we’ll feel like we belong on Twitter (or anywhere else, for that matter). You’ll most likely follow someone because you’ve resonated with something they posted. Similarity plays a crucial role in resonating with someone. We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or lifestyle.

Twitter addresses this by giving users the ability to mute certain words and topics, as well as the ability to ignore certain topics recommended on their timeline. Little by little, users’ feeds are adapted specifically to their interests. According to Twitter for Business, "People come to Twitter to connect with the passions and pursuits that they find meaningful". A Social Graph can only offer a superficial view of a person’s interests. Interest Graphs are deeper and more reliable since they track the patterns of human behavior through machine learning. Matched interests generate connections. Connections generate affinity. Affinity increases preference, which, in turn, increases trust. That’s what makes an Interest Graph a mutually beneficial tool.

Incorporating the concept of the Interest Graph into your writing process can be valuable. By understanding the power of similarity and shared interests, you can tailor your content to resonate with your target audience. Focus on creating content that aligns with their interests and values, and you will naturally attract a dedicated following.

Now, let's discuss three actionable pieces of advice before concluding this guide:

1. Write consistently and frequently: The game of online writing rewards people who publish consistently. Frequency is the price of entry, but quality writing is a force multiplier on your success. Make writing a habit and commit to a regular schedule to attract more opportunities.

2. Curate your information diet: Prioritize the accumulated wisdom of humanity over what’s trending on social media. Find people whose recommendations you consistently enjoy and subscribe to their newsletters. By consuming high-quality and unique content, you'll have a better foundation for generating your own ideas.

3. Have a central note-taking system: Capture your ideas, epiphanies, and the best parts of what you read in a central location. This will allow you to easily reference and search for your notes, ensuring that you never lose your valuable thoughts. Whether it's a digital app or a physical commonplace book, create a system that works for you.

In conclusion, writing online is a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. By writing in public, writing from abundance, and writing from conversation, you can attract opportunities and cultivate a loyal following. Additionally, by incorporating the concept of the Interest Graph into your writing process, you can tailor your content to resonate with your target audience and build trust. So, start writing consistently, curate your information diet, and have a central note-taking system to enhance your online writing journey. Let the Interest Graph guide you and watch as your writing flourishes.