I get to write a lot.  Fortunately, I like it because it is an important part of my job.  I also find that writing helps me organize jumbled messes of thought.  Here are notes on writing, which you should do daily no matter your occupation.

1. “Writing is research” (James Buchanan).  This is the wisdom of 1986 Nobel Laureate James Buchanan, one of the most prolific and original economists of the twentieth century.  Buchanan pointed out that getting something on paper helps you clarify your thinking.  As Duke University political scientist Michael Munger has said, everyone’s unwritten ideas are brilliant.  Taking the time to try to communicate them to an audience, or to yourself, can help you identify your ideas that really are brilliant, those that need some work, and those that need a visit from the delete key.

2. “Fluency can be achieved through grit” (Deirdre McCloskey).  Some people have a real way with words, but readable, influential, clear prose is not something that comes naturally even to the best writers among us.  Writing something that is readable takes a lot of time, effort, and revision.  And this is the really hard part.  It’s easy to hammer out rough drafts, but to turn those rough drafts into something readable and useful is another matter entirely.

3. “Put a stamp on it” (various).  That said, don’t obsess endlessly over your work.  There are a lot of brilliant people who were denied tenure or advancement because they didn’t have enough scholarly output. Here’s Buchanan again: “don’t get it right, get it written.”

This is not to say that you should be sloppy in your work–far from it.  I have several projects that have been awaiting careful revision, but I’ve put it off while I’ve worked on other things.  Nonetheless, it is important to realize that unless you are exceptionally brilliant you are very unlikely to develop a Grand Unification Theory of the physical sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.  As a grad school friend once put it, “grad students shouldn’t write unification papers.”  Be ambitious, but think about the intermediate steps needed for long-run success.  Here is Buchanan again: what are you working on that people will be reading in 100 years?  Have that as an end in mind with respect to the projects you undertake.

4. Invest your time wisely. At a conference at the Foundation for Economic Education in 2003, Peter J. Boettke advised a room full of graduate students not to write about methodology, suggesting that we should first do economics and then write about it.  I was working for 1993 Nobel Laureate Douglass C. North at the time, and I realized that people cared about what he had to say about methodology.  He had a distinguished career and a Nobel Prize.  I had just finished my second year of graduate school.  North has a claim on people’s attention if he wants to write about the methodology of economics.  I didn’t then and don’t now.  Concentrate on areas where you can make a contribution, do so, and then build on your success.

5.  Do not be afraid. I blogged for a while in graduate school and then stopped writing for the public for a while.  This was a very poor strategy: while I didn’t want to be branded a firebrand or an ideologue while I was on the job market, I wasted a lot of time because I closed off an outlet for something I really enjoyed doing and which is a complement to rather than a substitute for my teaching and research.  Both suffered as a result of the fact that I didn’t write or publish as much as I should have.  I accumulated a lot of drafts, but they mostly collected dust until I finally revised them and sent them out in June.

I was ultimately convinced to re-join the blogosphere by a podcast featuring George Mason University’s Tyler Cowen, who is one of the co-founders of marginalrevolution.com.  He argued that every economist should blog, and I now agree.  It is a way to extend the conversation, to refine teaching and communication skills, and to share research ideas.  I find that my professional writing has improved dramatically since I started blogging and writing op-eds again.

6.  Know when to end it. Brevity is indeed the soul of wit, and it is much harder to write a good 800 word article than it is to write a bad 1500 word article.  Your readers’ time is very valuable, so they don’t have time to read long digressions or poorly organized, meandering prose.

Good writing encourages clear thinking, and good writing comes with a lot of practice.  The benefits, though, are enormous.  So get to it!

我开始大量地写作。幸运地是，我喜欢写作，因为这是我工作中重要的一部分。而且，我发现，写作能帮助我整理混乱的思绪。这里有些关于写作的笔记，不管你从事何种职业，都应当每天照着做。

1.写作是一项研究 (詹姆斯布坎南).  这是二十世纪最初的且最负创造力的经济学家，1986年诺贝尔奖获得者 詹姆斯布坎南的智慧。布坎南认为，把东西写在纸上有助于你阐明自己所想。正如杜克大学的政治学家迈克尔芒格所说，每个人未写下的观点都是有才气的，花点时间试着把你所想的告诉别人，或是你自己，都能帮你确认你的想法，这些想法有些确实正确，有些还需要探索，有些需要删减。

2.“流利是可以通过勤奋来达到的” (迪尔德丽麦克洛斯基).  一些人对于文字确实有一套，但是有趣味性、有影响力又结构清晰的散文不是简简单单就可以写出来的，即使是对于我们之中最好的作家来说也是一样，写出具备可读性的文章花费很多时间、精力和修改。这实在是个艰难的部分。努力写出一份未完成的草稿是很简单，但是要把这些草稿变为能读且有用的东西却是完全不同的一回事了。

3.放个标志在上面。 (各种).  这是说，不要没完没了地固执于你的工作。有很多聪明人，因为他们没有足够的产量，所以被剥夺了使用权或提高。又是Buchanan所说的“把它写下来，不必在乎它是否正确”这不是说你应该对你的工作草率——远离它。

4.明智地投资你的时间。  2003年，在一次关于经济学教育基础的会议上，Peter J. Boettke 对满礼堂的研究生提出建议，让他们不要写关于方法论的文章，他们首先该做是对于经济学进行实践，而后写关于此的文章。在那个时候，我在为诺贝尔奖获得者道格拉斯诺斯工作，我意识到，人们对于他所说的关于方法轮的言论相当关注。 他有杰出的职业生涯和诺贝尔奖.。 我才刚刚完成我在研究生院的第二年。 如果他想要写有关经济方法论的文章，在南方肯定能引起轩然大波。 我那时候没那么做，现在也不。 投身于你能作出贡献的领域，然后才能收获成功。

5.不要害怕。我还在读研时，曾写过一段时间的博客，然后又有一段时间不再为公众写了。 这是个非常糟糕的战略：当我不想被标榜为一个煽动者或空想家时，我在找工作，我浪费了很多时间，我关上了通往我真正喜爱的职业的大门，这扇大门对于我的教学和研究来说是补充物而不是代用品。 这两样之所以是这样，是因为我没有就我应该做的去写作或出版。我积累了很多草稿，但是它们大部分都堆满了灰尘，直到我最终进行了修订并在6月将它们寄出。

最后，我被确认再次加入以美国乔治梅森大学的 泰勒"科恩（marginalrevolution.com的合作创始人）为领军人物的博客的播客。科恩认为，每个经济学家都该写播客。我现在很赞同他。这是个延伸谈话内容、完善教学和沟通技巧、分享研究想法的好方法。  我觉得，自我开始写播客和再次尝试专栏编辑后，我的职业写作已大大提高。

6.知道什么时候结束它。简洁确实是智慧的灵魂，写出篇不错的800字文章比起糟糕的1500字文章要难的多。读者的时间是宝贵的，所以他们不会有时间去读冗长、离题、结构不清、需要大修的文章。

良好的写作带给你清晰的思路，良好的写作源自于大量的实践。但是，收益良多。 所以，开始写作吧！