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10 Fatal Mistakes that Kill Conversations

talking to most. They make everyone feel better — a little smarter, a little calmer. Now think about the ones you enjoy talking to least. It feels like a chore. The entire time, you just want it to end. Get unlimited access. You've read all of your free stories this month. Become a member to keep reading. Upgrade Here's what you get when you upgrade to membership: Unlimited access. Explore Medium's library filled with everything you're curious about. No ads. There are zero ads on Medium and we don't sell your data. Reward quality writing. When you spend time reading a story, a portion of your membership fee will go directly to its author. "I love Medium's membership — it gives me access to the stories I love by the writers I love, and it allows me to help support those writers financially." In Hindi बात करने में आनंद लेते हैं। वे हर किसी को बेहतर महसूस कराते हैं - थोड़ा होशियार, थोड़ा शांत। अब सोचिये कि आपको कम से कम बात...

The First Step to Becoming a Better Writer

I coached college students in writing for three years. Here’s what I observed. JoAnna Schindler JoAnna Schindler Follow May 2 · 4 min read Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash For three years, I provided writing counseling services to undergraduates at a highly ranked university, including humanities students, pre-med hopefuls, future lawyers, athletes, and beyond. From literature papers to med school applications, I reviewed anything… Get unlimited access. You've read all of your free stories this month. Become a member to keep reading. Upgrade Here's what you get when you upgrade to membership: Unlimited access. Explore Medium's library filled with everything you're curious about. No ads. There are zero ads on Medium and we don't sell your data. Reward quality writing. When you spend time reading a story, a portion of your membership fee will go directly to its author. "I love Medium's membership — it gives me access to...

How to write anything

Illustrations: Katya Dorokhina HOW TO WRITE ANYTHING How to Write Anything Rules you can use to write anything you want to write — from a book to a tweet Ross McCammon Ross McCammon Follow You are a writer. You tweet. You email. You Slack. You text. Multiple times a day, you look at a blank screen and you fill it with words — your own words written in your own style for an audience you hope to persuade, amuse, inform. Here at Forge, we think there’s no activity more connected to the self — and no skill more improvable — than what we type into those screens. So, all this week, we’ve been publishing stories about how to write the things we write every day. In “Tweeting is Writing, Too,” Drew Magary, a writer of columns, blogs, and novels, reminds us that Twitter is a powerful platform for ideas — big or small, fun or weird — that requires authenticity and a healthy respect for your audience. In “How to Write an Article Millions of People Will Read,” Darius F...

The Dream Job Is Dead

The Dream Job Is Dead It’s time to look elsewhere for the fulfillment we hoped to get through our careers Jean Hannah Edelstein Jean Hannah Edelstein Follow May 21 · 4 min read Photo: tommaso79/Getty Images Over 15 years ago, before the financial crisis of 2008, I started working at my dream job. I was among that fortunate cohort of university graduates in the early 2000s who entered a workforce in which it still seemed possible that we could do anything if we worked hard and believed in ourselves. For me, this meant working in book publishing: I’d always loved reading, I had a degree in English Literature, and I had a vision of myself sitting at a desk in fashionable (?) tweed, reading the first page of a manuscript and crying out, “I’ve found the next Margaret Atwood!” And yes, when I told people my job title, they thought it sounded cool and glamorous. But the reality fell short of what I’d imagined. I spent my days filing piles of paper in cabinets and i...

Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting*

🙏🙏🙏 "Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting* You are not crazy, my friends." Julio Vincent Gambuto Julio Vincent Gambuto Follow Apr 10 · 9 min read Los Angeles, pollution-free. Photo: Gabriel Duarte This is the first part of a series of essays. Read Part 2 here. *Gaslighting, if you don’t know the word, is defined as manipulation into doubting your own sanity; as in, Carl made Mary think she was crazy, even though she clearly caught him cheating. He gaslit her. Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we “open back up” and move forward, very powerful forces will try to convince us all to get back to normal. (That never happened. What are you talking about?) Billions of dollars will be spent on advertising, messaging, and television and media content to make you feel comfortable again. It will come in the traditional forms — a billboard here, a hundred commercials there — and in new-media forms: a 2020–2021 generation of memes to re...

We can't back to home this time

Physical distancing at schools is impossible. Now is the time to prepare robust distance learning and close the technology gap. Harley Litzelman Harley Litzelman Follow May 19 · 24 min read Photo: Adam Augustus Crowley/The Image Bank/Getty Images Plus “This is what a room of 21 desks looks like with desks physically separated by 1.5 meters,” one teacher tweeted on April 28, referring to a photo of a classroom showing 14 student desks, each with a detached chair tucked tightly underneath. “To have kids back, we can make this work,” the teacher, based in Laos, continued. “USA, Canadian, European, African, South American teachers, get ready.” I felt some kinship with this optimistic educator. He sounded like every teacher who knows how to make it work despite roadblocks. This, it seemed, was the spirit of a teacher who spent hours composing the perfect graphic organizer for a week-long lesson only to find both copiers out of toner on Monday morning. This was th...