写作与思考2009philip.greenspun.com
我为什么不是作家（1996）
Why I'm Not a Writer (1996)
导读
这篇 1996 年的短文及相关讨论围绕“为什么我不做（全职）作家”展开：写作的最终结果不只由才华决定，环境、时机和运气至少同样重要。它值得写作者读，是因为提醒人区分“写得好”与“卖得好”，并为靠写作谋生准备技能组合和其他收入来源。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
别把作品成败全归因于才华；时机、渠道和运气对结果影响很大，写作之外也要经营传播。
- 02
想靠写作赚钱，最好先有另一份收入或可迁移技能，避免把生存压力全压在写作上。
- 03
承认“写得最好”和“卖得最好”是两种能力：出版与触达读者需要额外的推广和商业技能。
- 04
不要相信“有好内容就会自动触达大众”；线上传播仍需自我推广、成本和运气。
HN 评论精选
写作成功受环境、时机和运气影响，线上触达大众也仍需运气与自我推广。
很棒的投稿。作家和创业公司都处在类似的高赔率环境（如塔勒布所说的“极端斯坦”）：环境、时机和运气对最终结果的影响至少和才华一样大。创业公司还能靠投资人资助尝试，有些作家则有预付款；至于“一个 Web 服务器加口碑就能触达 5000 万受众”，那更像是 1996 年的乐观看法——后来我们发现，线上触达大量受众仍需要差不多的运气或自我推广，只是成本可能更低。
nir查看英文原文
Great submission. Pretty relevant to Hacker News, since writers and startups work in the similar high odds environment (like NNT's "Extremistan"). Circumstance, timing and luck have at least as much influence on the ultimate result as merit. (Though, unlike writers, startups can have investors financing their attempts. Some writers have it in the form of advance payment. I wonder if there's a YC model for authors..) As for "A Web server and worth-of-mouth is all that you need to reach an audience of 50 million", I think this is telling of the time this was written, in 1996. Seems to me we've since discovered that reaching a large audience online requires similar amounts of luck or self promotion as it did pre-Web, perhaps with cheaper costs. (BTW, I always thought this doers vs credit takers is the main underlying theme of The Wire. The conflict between the McNultys and Rawls's of this world.)
写作与商业传播可以兼修，但双技能更难；畅销和写得最好不是一回事。
《富爸爸》系列有“离巨大财富只差一项技能”的说法：一位有才华但未出版的女作家采访畅销书作者，作者指出自己是“畅销书作者”，而她是“写作最好作者”；她说不公平。我认为两种技能组合都可以拥有，但同时精通两套技能比精通一套难一倍以上，这足以解释为何少有人两者兼修——技能靠练习。我自己也常搭故事大纲、出版过技术写作，并以写作者为榜样经营创业/研究，但做行业许可研究时发现，这类工作在有“创作者”眼里可能毫无价值。
10ren查看英文原文
Re Greenspun's bundles of skills: One of the Rich Dad books talk about being "one skill away from great wealth". Because of Robert's best selling book, he is interviewed by a young woman who's also a talented writer. But she isn't getting published. He points out that he is a "best selling" author, while she is a "best writing" author. "It's not fair," she says, then reiterates Robert's thesis. I think you can have both bundles. It's just that if it's hard to become really good at just one skill-set, it's going to be twice as hard to be become really good at two. Could be it's even harder - but isn't x2 enough to explain why so few people practice both? I say "practice", because that's how you become really good at something. I fancy myself as a writer. I'm often constructing story outlines. I'm a published author (technical writing, alas). I model my startup/research life on those of writers. In other words, I'm a creator, a builder. It's not just what I do, it's what I value; what is meaningful to me. Yet, I've spent this August researching licensing agreements in my industry, to discover and understand what the standard approaches are, from the web. Once you're into it, it is quite interesting and challenging. It's a lot of work, and terms as used in price-lists and licenses are often ambiguous without the context of their use in action - it's like learning a foreign language from books. That's OK. The problem is that it is worthless in the eyes of a "creator" - my eyes. It's part of "selling". However, it's necessary in order to make money at reasonable rates. It makes sense to practice this skill, and gain this knowledge.
全职写作前要有其他收入来源，写作收入没有保证。
这让我想起奥森·斯科特·卡德给一位有志写作者的建议：决定做全职作家前，要确保有另一项收入来源，比如有钱的叔叔；即使写类型小说，也没有保证能靠写作养活自己。
quantumhobbit查看英文原文
This reminds me of something Orson Scott Card wrote to an aspiring writer once. http://www.hatrack.com/writingclass/lessons/1998-07-16.shtml Basically his advice is make sure you have another source of income, such as a rich uncle, before you decide to become a full-time writer. There is no guaranty that you will make enough to support yourself, even in genre writing.
把写作当作赚钱手段需要谨慎，这篇可作警示。
我提交这篇，部分因为它和之前一个 HN 讨论有关；它更像一则警示故事，尤其给那些想靠写作真正赚钱的人。
jseliger查看英文原文
Note that I submitted this in part because it relates to this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=777584 earlier HN thread, and it should serve as a cautionary tale more than anything else for those who think about trying to make real money writing.
同类还值得读
不要想好再写，要写来思考
Don’t think to write, write to think
这篇短文主张不要把写作当成思考完成后的记录，而要把写作本身当作思考的工具：动笔的过程会逼出想不清楚的地方。
写作与思考2022 · 553 分 · 145 评4 条写作要点编辑精选写作即思考：学会自信地写作
Writing Is Thinking: Learning to Write with Confidence
这是一篇讲“写作即思考”的博客：作者认为写作不是把想好的东西誊写出来，而是借助写作本身把想法想清楚，因此写作者应当建立信心、敢于先写烂稿。
写作与思考2019 · 529 分 · 83 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何用写作来思考
How to think in writing
这篇文章讨论的是「用写作来思考」：作者认为写作不只是把想清楚的东西表达出来，更是想清楚本身的工具——文字落在纸上，你才有机会看见自己思路里的跳跃、含混和漏洞。
写作与思考2024 · 424 分 · 120 评4 条写作要点编辑精选写作，帮你逃离默认的人生设置
Write to Escape Your Default Setting
文章的核心主张就写在标题里：写作是帮你逃离「默认设置」的手段——日常的思维和表达都有惯性默认的默认模式，而落笔能逼你跳出来，重新看清自己到底在想什么、要说什么。
写作与思考2025 · 407 分 · 93 评4 条写作要点编辑精选写作就是思考
Writing is thinking
文章以“写作即思考”为题，讨论写作不只是把已有想法记录下来，而是帮助澄清、组织和推进思考的过程。
写作与思考2025 · 330 分 · 128 评4 条写作要点编辑精选