Ciao, I'm Julia.

One of my 2024 New Year's Resolutions was to learn cosmology. The why behind this is the making of a separate post. At some point, I found myself devouring as much content as I could find from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. This led me to discover his Masterclass on scientific thinking and communication, which sounded like a handy skill to learn.

I managed to convince myself that buying a Masterclass subscription would mean access to high-quality content, curated and developed by experts. I told myself it would be worth the cost because the alternative would be mindlessly browsing clickbaity YouTube videos created by randos. Because the algorithms are always listening, when I saw the ad for 40% off a yearly Masterclass subscription a few days later, I was primed to make the commitment. 💸

Anyway, fast forward 6 months, and of course, I'm still mostly watching YouTube 🙄. On a guilt trip, I logged into Masterclass to get some inspiration and stumbled across a class on storytelling from Michael Lewis. That immediately caught my attention, and I got sucked into watching over 2 hours of his videos to complete his class.

why storytelling?

To me, storytelling is a really important skill for effective communication. It helps others connect with you and care more about whatever you're trying to say. It's a skill that's constantly at the back of my mind, one I'm continuously working on improving.

ok… but why?

As Michael himself says, it's useful in a job interview, if you have to give a speech, or if you're going to a dinner party. These are things you do as part of life. If you get better at it, you get better at life.

why michael lewis?

Michael Lewis has this amazing ability to take complex ideas or seemingly uninteresting things (sub-prime loans, sports data, etc.) and write books that draw you in as well as any thriller can. I'm a fan and wanted to understand more about how he does this consistently.

Books of his I’ve read and loved:

• Liar’s Poker - on Wall Street traders
• The Undoing Project - on Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman
• Going Infinite - on Sam Bankman-Fried

what i’ve taken away

Some thoughts I'm pondering from the Masterclass that relate to writing this blog:

• First and foremost, write something that you want to read.
• Get curious. Find things that interest you that other people don't think are important.
• Imagine you're writing the story for someone who loves you indiscriminately. Avoid writing from a place of fear of what your readers will think.
• Write simply. Constrain yourself by using fewer words.
• Only provide as much technical detail as is important for the reader to connect to the story. Don't provide details for the sake of proving your knowledge or domain expertise.
• Don't try to tell the reader how to feel. Write things as they are. Different readers will feel and connect with different things.
• Start writing when you know what the ending will be. This will act as the north star as the story develops.
• Set a minimum number of words to write a day.
• Put your ass in the chair (and just write).

other interesting bits

• Learn the skill of storytelling by reading The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr. My highlights can be found here.
• Learn more about Michael Lewis by listening to this Tim Ferriss podcast.