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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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      I’ve noticed my writing style has changed in the last few years in a very specific way: I seem to have unconsciously/consciously deprecated all features of writing that make it valuable to readers while focusing on those that make it more valuable to me. A more “private” style.

      3 replies 3 retweets 54 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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      It’s I think a reaction to a sense that our society is increasingly devaluing the written word so my brain is unconsciously going, “well screw you guys, I’m taking this show private”.

      6:19 PM - 8 Jan 2020
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      • SUNSHINE ☀️ REVIVAL ian m hines David o'Bedlam Pamela Joy to the World Hobart Kyle Russell eleanorina Dorian Taylor zem Anu
      1 reply 2 retweets 22 likes
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        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          The devaluing takes many forms: careless language by public figures, disdain for precision/nuance, indifference to clarity. Fewer people just taking pleasure in words (wit, irony, wordplay, artistically interesting subversions), devaluing of verbal products like wonkery etc.

          1 reply 1 retweet 24 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          Features that are more for readers than me: memes, neologisms, helpful examples, images, aphorisms, throughline narratives, scripted “aha” moments, pop culture references. While I enjoy (or used to) the crafting of these, when I write for myself I dispense with them.

          1 reply 0 retweets 14 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          To be fair, the abuse of language in service of the power: to intimidate, manipulate, pander, flatter, threaten, scare, obfuscate, mislead, misdirect...this is a legit skill and art form in its own right. And deliberate practitioners of that kind of language are doing fine.

          1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
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        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          But there’s a joylessness to such use that is uninterested in its ability to enable rather than retard thought. And it’s not about power per se. Language+power are PB&J when one is not reduced to being an instrument of the other (think good rap lyrics or dialogue in Deadwood)

          2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
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        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          Not writer’s block exactly, but I’ve “lost” my *public* voice. A sense of “why bother? no matter how much effort and thought I put into it, some shitty trumpy thing or outrage cycle will take over the discourse”

          8 replies 0 retweets 21 likes
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        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          Pen vs. sword is a pretty good dichotomy. I think in the current mood practicing shooting would feel more rewarding than practicing writing, as far as cultivating a public voice goes (for the record I’ve never fired a gun or been particularly attracted by the idea)

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
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        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 8
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          (No objection/problems with learning gun skills, and if I had to I suppose I’d learn and get mediocre at it)

          0 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
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        9. End of conversation

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