Wisereads Vol. 47 — Bob Doto's System for Writing, Sequoia on AI's $600B question, and more
Last week, we shared a preview of Nat Eliason's debut, Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance. This week, we're sharing the entirety of A System for Writing, Bob Doto's guide to capturing ideas and fueling writing with a zettelkasten.
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Most highlighted Articles of the week
AI's $600B Question
In an update to his September 2023 post, David Cahn highlights the need for AI products to close the massive gap between expected revenue and actual revenue. "Outside of ChatGPT, how many AI products are consumers really using today? Consider how much value you get from Netflix for $15.49/month or Spotify for $11.99. Long term, AI companies will need to deliver significant value for consumers to continue opening their wallets."
How to think in writing
Henrik Karlsson explains how writing forces him to articulate his thoughts clearly, revealing flaws in his logic and bringing him closer to the truth. "Often this dialogue ends with me changing my mind about several premises and coming to a different conclusion, but the original idea remains the seed—no less valuable for having been proven wrong. It takes creativity and boldness to leap out and form a conclusion, and the part that criticizes must understand how dependent it is on the part that throws ideas at the wall."
The Right Kind of Stubborn
In his new essay, YC founder Paul Graham differentiates two types of stubborness: persistence and obstinance. "The reason the persistent and the obstinate seem similar is that they're both hard to stop. But they're hard to stop in different senses. The persistent are like boats whose engines can't be throttled back. The obstinate are like boats whose rudders can't be turned."
Most highlighted YouTube Video of the week
how I reduced my screentime by 80% (guide)
In sharing the apps that enable his modern "dumb phone," former tech consultant Eric (aka Reysu) reflects on his evolving relationship with his phone, especially with apps that feature endless algorithmic feeds. "The phone has only one purpose and it's to work for me, and not against me. If I find that it's getting more addicting, then it's time to put on more restrictions... now that I've been using this for a while, I feel like I really have a healthy relationship with my phone where a lot of times when I'm going out, I don't even need to really bring it."
Most highlighted Twitter Thread of the week
I just finished re-reading Mastery by Robert Greene
Ex-dentist and copywriter Kieran Drew pairs his favorite quotes from Robert Greene's Mastery with his own takeaways, including: "Deep work is key: 'It is better to dedicate two or three hours of intense focus to a skill than to spend eight hours of diffused concentration on it. You want to be as immediately present to what you are doing as possible.'"
Most highlighted PDF of the week
Reasoning in Large Language Models: A Geometric Perspective
In their pursuit to improve customer service with voice AI agents, Tenyx publishes research on leveraging geometric patterns to create smaller, more efficient LLMs. "Our findings reveal that as the number of examples provided in the prompt increases, the intrinsic dimension of the LLM also rises. Notably, while the increase in the intrinsic dimension at the first layer is not indicative of the accuracy of the model’s responses, a significant rise in the intrinsic dimension at the final layer strongly correlates with enhanced reasoning performance."
Hand-picked book of the week
A System for Writing
Bob Doto didn't always see himself as a writer. Rather, writing was something he did when inspiration struck, not his identity. That changed when he adopted the Zettelkasten system—a method of creating and interlinking notes—to fuel his best and most consistent work.
In his new guide, A System for Writing, Bob reveals how this system helps writers reliably transform insight into tangible pieces of writing by capturing fleeting ideas and making novel connections.
"Everything that goes into creating main notes increases its value by making the idea more useful, connectable, memorable, and a joy to work with. If you’re feeling like there’s a lot going on inside main notes, remember it’s all done in service of your future self. The 'you' that’s looking at your notes today isn’t the same 'you' that created them and will not be the same 'you' five years from now looking to your notes for insight and guidance… If you take just a few moments to add useful information to your main notes when you create them, you’ll save yourself hours reinventing the wheel."
We're thrilled that Bob is generously sharing the entirety of his book with Wisereads readers. If you enjoy his guide, we invite you to show your support by purchasing a digital or paper copy of his book here.
Handpicked RSS feed of the week
Essays
Supported by his Zettelkasten system, Bob Doto also publishes regular essays with insights on note taking, project management for the homesteader, and more. From What Do We Mean When We Say "Bottom-Up?": "Adopting a bottom-up approach to writing allows ideas and connections to guide the process. A writer starts with what they have—ideas captured in notes—and lets them determine the direction of the project... By contrast, in a top-down approach to writing, the writer begins with a predetermined topic that is then supported by relevant ideas pulled from the zettelkasten. While a bottom-up approach embraces the emergent nature of ideas, top-down methods provide a targeted framework, allowing the writer to curate and gather materials with a predetermined goal in mind."