Raymond's User Manual

Writing

6 min read

Writing is an ordinary person’s best investment: turn tacit knowledge into shareable explicit assets so your expertise can keep working for you.

My Interpretation (Wisdom)

If I looked back on these ten years of running a company of one and had to choose one most important skill, I would say “writing” without hesitation.

Writing is not a prose contest, and you do not need to be an author. Its essence is “clearly communicating what is in your head to another person.” The messages, reports, and proposals you write at work every day are all writing. The difference is that some people discard what they write, while others turn it into an asset.

I started writing on Medium in 2017. In the first year, each article had fewer than 100 views. But I kept documenting and sharing. Later, these words and digital traces “automatically found work for me.” Writing accumulates, can be searched, and travels across time and space. The return on investment of a good article is far higher than that of most efforts.

Start with everyday documentation and improve learning by learning while teaching. Writing is not only creation; it lets expertise compound.

Strategy and Methods (Knowledge)

Writing Is an Ordinary Person’s Best Investment

Why does writing have such a high ROI? It can “productize” knowledge so expertise works for you around the clock. You do not need to be an author; if you can express yourself clearly and organize experience, the market, managers, and opportunities can notice you. People without experience have even more reason to write, because what they know is more valuable than they imagine.

Source: Raymond’s core belief.

Practical AI Writing

AI is a writing assistant, not a replacement for creation. The core principles are to retain personal viewpoints, treat AI like a search engine, and use the IPO process (Input, Process, Output). Your life experience and personal viewpoint are the core and should remain yours. Let AI help edit during Process, then review and correct the Output yourself.

Related Content (Information)

Course Scripts

  • 24 | Why is writing an ordinary person’s best investment?
  • 25 | Practical AI writing: how to write with a point of view from scratch

Articles and Newsletters

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  • 2020-12-03: Content creation and podcasting: how to conduct a proper retrospective and derive a methodology
  • 2023-07-11: How to build a personal brand after work: four years of writing led to a book invitation — interview with Zhu Qi, Digital Life Atlas #20
  • 2023-08-15: The purpose of daily creation: writing only for yourself — interview with Little Goldfish, Digital Life Atlas #21
  • 2023-05-16: Behind ten years of writing by the Computer Playthings site owner: how to relax after work and turn life into projects — interview with Esor, Digital Life Atlas #19
  • 2021-06-17: Six months into paid content subscriptions, I discovered the essence of writing habits and creative freedom
  • 2025-02-18: I wrote 70 articles this year: roundup of the year’s most popular content
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  • 2023-01-01: Thomas Frank’s five principles for sustained creation: the impossible list
  • 2022-12-31: The 22-year-old lifehacker I admire most: He Tongxue changes what we expect from technology unboxings and reviews
  • 2022-12-29: Running a podcast as an amateur: from single-digit listens to number one, retrospectives, iteration, and work–life integration — Digital Life Atlas #05
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  • 2026-05-20: Who is Anji? From Taiwan to the United States: impostor-syndrome struggles, self-publishing, and a Taiwan-made identity shift
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Social Posts

Data

  • 🔖 “People do not write the first draft; AI does not write the final draft.”

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