Long online writing is a waste time

The online / offline split

I hate long articles online.

When I click on something that looks interesting and I see big blocks of text I’m already half checked out. And then if I start scrolling down for a glance and notice that the scrolling goes on forever I’m done.

I used to sometimes think I shouldn’t do this.

I’d even save articles or bookmark them for later. But ninety-nine times out of a hundred I never bothered getting back to them.

And now I know that I was instinctually right.

Writing online is best in short form text. Tweets, short articles, short emails or whatever. As Ben Settle would say, make your point and get out of there.

Instead, long writing is best suited to physical forms. Books, magazines, newspapers etc.

If there’s someone I like reading online and I see they have a book then I’ll buy it. A book is a good way to go deep. You can lie by the sea or on your couch with it.

Seeing someone glued to their phone while by the sea is about the gayest thing ever. But with a book it looks sublime.

The internet is great for information and learning. But it’s shallow. It moves fast.

Even if I do find someone that has written loads of interesting online articles I’d much rather just buy a book of them. There’s loads of interesting guys on Substack as well as other places that I’d like to read in more depth.

Can’t you just put your best stuff into a book. No need to edit. Even if it’s only like eighty or a hundred pages. I just want to flick through the pages as I read.