To become a better writer...

I should start by apologizing to any readers. My name is Benjamin Manning, and I am a terrible writer. If you, poor soul, are choosing to read this, then you are actively joining me in my quest to update that sentence to “My name is Benjamin Manning, and my dad and/or advisor say my writing is tolerable.” Why would I embark on such a quest—beyond not-so-special wanting of parental/advisory approval? Well, I’m a PhD student at MIT, and it has become clear to me that writing is THE pre-eminent mark of a successful academic.¹ Communicating one’s thoughts and ideas into another’s mind in one shot with limited space is a task not for the faint of heart! Indeed, you might think that someone who writes phrases like “not for the faint of heart” probably needs some practice. I am here to get it.

But I will be doing more than just practicing my phrasing and prose. I will be trying to communicate the ideas I have about economics, experimentation, machine learning, policy, and the like to a “broader” audience than those forced to read the dense academic papers I have committed to writing for the next 60 years. Some days I will simply try to share what I’ve learned, and others, I’ll review new papers and ideas for a general audience. Maybe, if you’re unlucky, I’ll even share some personal experiences or anecdotes. And maybe, if I’m lucky, you’ll find some of it informative and funny. And maybe, if I’m REALLY lucky, people who don’t share my last name will read some of these posts (hi, Dad).

So, this is post #1 of many. This substack is a forcing function that will hopefully help me develop a voice and a skill so I can one day write a book or at least a few good papers. And since this is a forcing function, I should plant my flag and stand my ground; do something a little bit childish but probably helpful. I will make a WOOP as designed by one of my mentors. What’s a WOOP you might ask? Well, it’s a Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. It’s a mechanism to help students (and literally anyone) do things that they want by writing them down explicitly and outlining how they’re going to get there. See below:

There’s research showing that this is an effective tool for students to improve their success rates in accomplishing some goal. As you already know, my wish is to become a better writer, and even though 95% of people who fill out a “WOOP” are aged 7-12, I’m going to add a 29-year-old to that sample.

Wish: To become a writer who can eloquently say what he’s thinking. When writing informally, the dream is to be a fusion of David Sedaris and Richard Feynman (fat chance). For academic work, I wish to communicate my ideas clearly with the slightest edge. Finally, along the way, I hope to speed up my writing (this post took more than an hour…) and also to improve my ability to ideate.

Outcome: Someday, I will write a book that I will be proud of. I only need a few others to be proud of this book (the aforementioned parents), and it does not have to be groundbreaking. Also, when I write, I generally want to be proud of the words on the page. I read A LOT. I know what’s good and what’s not, even though I can’t necessarily always generate good writing. I know it when I see it (e.g., this post is bad). I will reach a point where I can churn out quality work that will get published in academic papers. Several people have told me that “writing is thinking,” and they are surely correct. To write well, one must know exactly what he wishes to say. So, I will know what I wish to say and then write it well someday.

Obstacle: Writing is hard and slow, and I almost never want to do it. It’s also very difficult to get feedback. In the short term, writing on this substack will always take time away from the work that I should be doing for my dissertation. Although, indirectly, I believe it will help.

Plan: (Gulp). I’m going to write on this substack AT LEAST once per month ad infinitum. I’m going to share it with a few people as an accountability mechanism. My parents, my girlfriend, and anyone else I can convince to read it. I’m going to explicitly ask those people how I could improve every single one. I already know that this will be sickeningly painful. Finally, I’m going to re-read Style until my eyes bleed and I can quote it like Shakespeare. I will look back in a few years and be very glad I started writing, and maybe someone else will learn something along the way.

1. There’s one caveat here. If you are a mathematical genius, you can get away with some sub-par writing. Alas, mathematical genius is something I simply am not.