The dot-matrix era of AI writing
Some day we'll stop pretending we aren't using AI. Then we can get back to the real work. Unfortunately, too much AI writing right now is obnoxious.
dylan tweney
if you re bored, you re not paying attention
Latest posts
Two weeks in a monastery
While I don’t tend to mix my Buddhist practices with my writing and editing business, I’m wondering today if maybe a little more mixing might be a good thing.
Five things for June 4
The “five things” format dates back to the days of Livejournal, apparently. I was prompted to try it by this [ ]
Inner life
At Tennessee Beach, on the Marin headlands just north of the Golden Gate, jagged fins of soft, striated rock curve [ ]
Can you use AI to write?
I’ve been saying for awhile that AI is a useful tool but that it’s no replacement for thinking things through yourself, which is what the process of writing helps you do.
How haiku can help you be a better writer
Haiku helped me become a better headline writer. They have helped me write better subject lines for emails. But most of all, they've helped me enjoy and appreciate life more.
Finding your flow as a writer
What do you do when your creative flow feels blocked, your energy levels are low, or you simply don t feel [ ]
Never let AI write your first draft
If you want to stand out from the sea of AI slop in 2026, you need to make AI work for you -- rather than the other way around.
The magic of magazines
tl;dr: I helped make a magazine! I fell in love with magazines as a young adult. In college, I contributed [ ]
Haiku changed my life
One crisp autumn day, on a whim, I started sending haiku to a few friends via email and text message. [ ]
Collaboration and photography
This summer, my friend Janne-Pekka Manninen, a Finnish journalist and photographer, began a three-month artist s residency in Berlin. He invited [ ]
It’s Clippy’s world now
When Microsoft first introduced its Office assistant, Clippy, it was ridiculed by many. The cutesy animated paperclip came across as [ ]
How to write like Neal Stephenson
I was standing in the futuristic, multi-story atrium of NVIDIA s Endeavor building when I saw Neal Stephenson leaning against a [ ]
What it’s like to attend a Renaissance Weekend
Last weekend, on a sunny balcony overlooking Monterey Bay, with cocktail chatter in the near background and sea lions barking [ ]
Introduction to Listening Poetry
This summer, I took a five-week course from The Good Listening Project to learn the craft of listening poetry: poetry that arises from [ ]
Good listening leads to better thinking
A fellow consultant recently asked me for advice on writing and publishing more consistently. He wasn’t asking me to ghostwrite [ ]
Writing with (and without) AI
Artificial intelligence complicates things for writers. It s complicating everything for everyone these days, sure. We all have AI in our [ ]
What is content? What is writing?
Like many writers who take their craft seriously, I had an uneasy relationship with the word “content” for a long [ ]
Rewrites to infinity: David Strom on the reality (and dangers) of content collaboration
David Strom is a veteran technology journalist and content strategist who has been covering enterprise technology for over three decades. [ ]
Secrets of the word wizards
Writing has always been a challenging job. But now, in the age of generative AI, it s getting even more difficult [ ]