Making & learning · Collection guide · 5 stops
Explain & tell better stories
Bring a message, article, presentation or proposal that someone needs to understand. This route moves from sentence-level clarity to observation, demonstration, language and the result an audience cares about. Each step should change the same piece of communication, so the learning accumulates into a finished revision.
Browse this collection in reading order →Suggested routes through material saved to explore. I haven’t read or watched everything here yet. The order and prompts are editorial suggestions based on available source text, excerpts, descriptions and synopses; they are not personal ratings or claims of completed viewing.
Make the first version easier to follow
Videos · Est. 30 min
The Day You Became a Better Writer -- Writing Tips from Dilbert Creator Scott Adams →
Collected by The Unintuitive ↗
Adams’s non-fiction writing tutorial supplies an accessible starting point for explaining an idea. Use it on a short section of your own work before taking on larger questions of narrative and persuasion.
Pause & try
Rewrite one paragraph so its central claim is unmistakable. Remove a sentence that repeats the point without adding evidence or meaning.
Replace abstraction with observed detail
Talese’s Sinatra profile shows how a portrait can be built through scenes, people and specific observations. It follows the clarity exercise by asking what gives a reader something concrete to understand.
Pause & try
Find one general claim in your draft. Support it with a precise example, scene or fact you can substantiate.
Show the idea working
Jobs’s 2007 iPhone presentation adds demonstration and sequence to written description. Watch how the audience is introduced to an unfamiliar product, then consider where your explanation asks readers to imagine too much.
Pause & try
Create a short example, sketch or demonstration of the main idea. Put it where the audience first needs it, not after every detail.
Check what the language conceals
Orwell’s essay is a useful corrective after studying persuasive performance. Clear communication also requires examining whether familiar phrases make a weak claim sound more solid or hide who is doing what.
Pause & try
Underline vague phrases and passive descriptions in your revision. Replace one with a specific actor, action and consequence.
End with the change that matters
Butterfield’s Slack memo reframes the product around the change customers want. Use this last to connect all the improved sentences and examples to a purpose the audience can recognise.
Pause & try
Write one sentence naming who this is for and what will be different for them. Check that the opening and ending both support it.
After the five stops
Take it into your own life.
Give the revision to someone resembling the intended audience. Ask them what it means, why it matters and what they would do next. Revise the first point of confusion they identify; do not explain it away verbally and leave the same problem in the document.
Continue exploring
Items 1–5 are the guided route above. The remaining items are listed alphabetically below; choose what interests you next. These numbers match the collection shelf.
- A conversation about advertising, with David Ogilvy → Find on the shelf: A conversation about advertising, with David Ogilvy →
- Brian Armstrong of Coinbase with an email to a new PM → Find on the shelf: Brian Armstrong of Coinbase with an email to a new PM →
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream → Find on the shelf: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream →
- Federer as Religious Experience - David Foster Wallace → Find on the shelf: Federer as Religious Experience - David Foster Wallace →
- Hunter Thompson profile → Find on the shelf: Hunter Thompson profile →
- Jobs On Flash - Steve Jobs → Find on the shelf: Jobs On Flash - Steve Jobs →
- Life lessons from an ad man | Rory Sutherland → Find on the shelf: Life lessons from an ad man | Rory Sutherland →
- Memos from the Chairman (Bear Stearns) - Alan C. Greenberg → Find on the shelf: Memos from the Chairman (Bear Stearns) - Alan C. Greenberg →
- MrBeast Production Handbook → Find on the shelf: MrBeast Production Handbook →
- Nick Cave 20000 Days on Earth → Find on the shelf: Nick Cave 20000 Days on Earth →
- Psywar - The Real Battlefield Is The Mind → Find on the shelf: Psywar - The Real Battlefield Is The Mind →
- Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued → Find on the shelf: Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued →
- Sam Altman’s Method for Clear Thinking → Find on the shelf: Sam Altman’s Method for Clear Thinking →
- Thank You for Smoking → Find on the shelf: Thank You for Smoking →
- The Century of the Self Series → Find on the shelf: The Century of the Self Series →
- The Kid Stays in the Picture → Find on the shelf: The Kid Stays in the Picture →
- The Mastermind → Find on the shelf: The Mastermind →
- The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology → Find on the shelf: The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology →
- The Playboy Interview With Jimmy Carter → Find on the shelf: The Playboy Interview With Jimmy Carter →
- What it’s like to work for Stripe - Alex MacCaw → Find on the shelf: What it’s like to work for Stripe - Alex MacCaw →
- When We Were Kings → Find on the shelf: When We Were Kings →
- Why I Write - George Orwell → Find on the shelf: Why I Write - George Orwell →