Hugh Howey on the Future of Storytelling
The Tim Ferriss Show with Tim Ferriss - Podcast Index
Hugh Howey, a New York Times bestselling author known for his Silo trilogy and Wool, dives into the intricacies of self-publishing and navigating the traditional publishing world. He emphasizes the importance of a reader-first mindset and the power of maintaining creative control. Howey shares insights on the discipline required for daily writing and discusses the impact of AI on the publishing landscape. He reflects on the balance between optimism and existential threats in today's society, providing a thought-provoking perspective on the future of storytelling.
Episode notes
- Reading beautifully written prose before a writing session can inspire and influence one's own writing style by establishing a rhythm and tone.
- Amidst fears of unemployment due to AI, there are opportunities to enhance skills and creativity by utilizing AI to assist in writing and focusing on revising content.
- The persistence of religion over time raises questions about an inherent evolutionary drive towards religion and its impact on belief systems.
Snips
[43:16] Reading Beautiful Prose for Writing Inspiration
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (42:09 - 43:15)
✨ Summary
Reading beautifully written prose before a writing session can serve as a tuning fork for one's own writing, helping to establish a rhythm and tone. The flow of good translation or prose, including iambic pentameter and run-on sentences, can inspire the tonal quality of good writing and influence one's own work. The mention of the book 'This Is How You Lose the Time War' as an example of inspiring writing, and the unique structure of the book 'Circe' written by two authors alternating chapters, highlights the impact of well-crafted prose on shaping one's writing style.
📚 Transcript
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Hugh Howey
Think reading beautiful prose is almost like striking a tuning fork before your writing session. I think it's really awesome to pick up. There's several things you can do. You can read stuff that's nonsense, but beautiful, like some Proust. And you can just turn to any part of Proust, it's all the same. The beginning of a story reads just like the middle of the stories. But the way a good translation of Proust flows, that iambic pentameter, the run-on sentences, it's like it's, you start to hear the tonal quality of good music in words, and then you Can start to sing in that key yourself. Some of the books I've read recently that have, I think, upped my writing. One was, This Is How You Lose the Time War, which is- So good. That is an incredible book. And it's short. And it's one of those that you could just pick up and read again to like, remind yourself what writing can sound like. Also fascinating because it was written by two authors who alternated back and forth, which is structural to the story, which works. Circe. Have you read that?
Tim Ferriss
I haven't yet read it.
Hugh Howey
I have seen so many people reading it. I've seen friends reading it. It took me forever to read that. The
[01:07:54] Finding Opportunities in Threats
🎧 Play snip - 2min️ (01:06:05 - 01:07:54)
✨ Summary
Amidst fears of unemployment with the rise of AI, there are opportunities to enhance skills and creativity. Utilizing AI to assist in writing can conquer the challenge of the blank page, making the writing process more efficient and effective. This enables individuals to focus more on revising rather than the initial writing process, thus improving the overall quality of the content created.
📚 Transcript
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Tim Ferriss
Are the opportunities hiding in the threats, right? When I see this, because I've also seen some fears around unemployment, which I think are valid in a lot of respects. I would disagree strongly with Kevin on that, right? And I think he wrote in his Wired piece that he felt net known would lose jobs because AI. I disagree with that. But are there any opportunities that you see? And I guess we kind of telegraphed some of it in terms of getting skills up to 80% of an industry veteran. But as you think about all of the noise that's going to be generated and all of the experimentation that's going to happen, which is intrinsically interesting to me, what are some of Maybe the opportunities that people might not see or things that come to mind for you? Because I think of, for instance, I'll throw one out there, which is just conquering the empty page. If I could use voice to kind of ramble my ideas, which I'm very good at doing, they come out pretty polished. I'm like, man, I wish I could have just written that. So many times I'll say something to Matt, my writing partner, and it comes out perfect.
Hugh Howey
And neither one of us are typing. I'm like, we will never get that back, will we? And it's gone. No, exactly.
Tim Ferriss
So if I could do that into an AI who would clean it up, make a few suggestions, boom, I've just conquered the empty page. Yeah. And now I have something. Once I have clay on the table to work with, now I can work with it. Revising is so much easier than writing. So much easier, right? So that would be one example where I could see AI enabling me to do better, more consistent writing. I'm wondering if other use cases come to mind. Yeah, that's a really good one.
Hugh Howey
One thing I'll say about, go back to Kevin's net unemployment, I think he can be right, but it doesn't make it any easier because
[01:24:53] Understanding the Persistence of Religion
🎧 Play snip - 1min️ (01:23:43 - 01:24:56)
✨ Summary
The persistence of religion over time, despite persecution, raises questions about an inherent evolutionary drive towards religion. While religion is deemed a benign superstition compared to extreme conspiracy theories like QAnon, it can also blur the lines of reality. Observing the gap left by a decline in religious belief as a contributing factor to the rise of conspiracy theories, the concept of worshipping something is highlighted as essential, where self-awareness of one's worship is crucial.
📚 Transcript
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Tim Ferriss
Building. A lot of science. A lot of original science was coming out of- Absolutely. A lot of amazing science. And just the sheer prevalence and persistence over time, despite in some places persecution, is it like birds building bird nests? Is there some evolutionary inherent drive that is coded into us that leads us to pursue what we label as religion i don't know i have no idea i just i just find the sheer persistence and
Hugh Howey
Durability of it very interesting it's very interesting well our superstition will never go away and i think religion is a much more benign superstition than some of the other ones That we've seen lately these deep conspiracy theories that people lose reality to. Not that believing in religion isn't also losing a sense of reality, but watching the QAnon, some of that was a gap left by a loss of religion, I think.
Tim Ferriss
I'm so glad you said that because I think a lot about, and I'm blanking on the exact writing or speech from David Foster Wallace, but the gist of it is we all worship something. The key is to know what you worship, right? And if