Scott Alexander, in my opinion, always always writes too many words. But he’s also a better writer and thinker than I am. His style usually doesn’t work for me, but it is inarguably successful in the rationalist crowd. that I am curious about even if I am also skeptical and think they take some things too far. The rationalists do have their uses though.
This particular post is one that I cannot refuse, but even with the succulent topic of blogging right, he still has too many words for me. For your benefit, and future me too, I pull out some of the good bits.
The English language hates the slightest whiff of dishonesty, even levels so small you wouldn’t naturally notice them yourself. It punishes you by making your writing worse.
Do less cliches, even if sometimes you have to commit linguistically barbarous acts. Those can be fun too, if used judiciously.
You contribute to the blogosphere by injecting first-level facts about the world, or second-level primary sources by experts who have gotten the first-level facts. You draw down those contributions by playing too many games of telephone with popular topics that you got from the blogosphere itself.
Just say the thing you want to say
There are lots of other good bits in there too, so I suggest you read it.