The Writers Paradox

A desire for social connection spurred my foray into writing. I wanted to relate to people AND entertain them with relevant content. My job had me staying in hotels and flying twice a week, so I had a special affinity for the number one online travel agent… TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor is BUSY. With a remarkable amount of internet traffic, known in the digital marketing industry as eyeballs, the platform can provide any aspiring food critic with thousands of views on their reviews. Knowing this, I published reviews for countless restaurants and hotels, racking up a coveted view count. After a few months an email popped up in my inbox saying I had reached 50,000 readers. Wow! In some sick narcissistic mindset, 50,000 felt ~good~ and I felt validated (this was the same good I feel after getting likes on an Instagram post, fleeting and misinformed). But I also felt something else…

A growing disconnect with my readers.

As a consultant living on the road and going to a different restaurant 5 nights per week, the novelty of a steaming fajita platter or flambé shrimp cocktail started to wear off. The restauranteur (albeit self appointed) notices and cares about different details than someone that only eats out on special occasions. I no longer felt relatable. Buying a simple cup of coffee turned into a bloody Game of Thrones saga. Here’s one from a few years back:

There you have it — a remarkable three bubbles out of five. In an effort to entertain, I started going in on a Starbucks patron for ordering a mountain of dairy and sugar disguised as coffee. Travelers looking for practical information about this Starbucks likely scrolled past this review. Actually, I know they didn’t find it helpful, because not a single person clicked the thumbs up.

Sad. But Revealing.

The Writers Paradox is real, and it goes something like this:

The more you know, the less you can relate. The closer you are to becoming an expert on a topic, the farther you are from comprehending the beginner point of view.

There’s a reason society has labeled exceptional scientists “mad”. They are simply incapable or unwilling to communicate complex and nuanced ideas to the uninformed public. This requires energy and a flexibility which takes time away from research and discovery. In my case, I was just bored of writing vanilla synopsis on dining establishments. For real experts, the challenge is less about redundancy, and more about separating common knowledge from expertise.

However, not all experts suffer from this dilemma. Neil Degrasse Tyson, the pop-astrophysicist, has made a career out of explaining the unexplainable. Even people with little time to open a physics textbook can learn from “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”. Neil wrote this book for regular people despite having a PHD from Colombia University and spending countless hours publishing scientific research papers.

Understanding can be segmented into 3 levels.

1. Novice
2. Expert
3. Expert + Communicator

Undoubtedly, Neil Degrasse Tyson has brought expert communication to new heights and broken through the Writers Paradox obstacle plaguing so many well informed people.

Personally, as a financial professional, I am transitioning from writing about food to writing about financial literacy, and my goal is to move from Level 2 to Level 3 in the process. While the content may be significantly less groundbreaking than astrophysics in a hurry, it will be equally digestible for the average reader.