Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: My checklist for publishing a blog post, published by Steven Byrnes on August 15, 2023 on LessWrong.

Introduction

Checklists are good. I don't use checklists much for my job though. (My to-do list is stylistically a kanban, not a checklist - details here & here.)

But I have one exception: My checklist for publishing blog posts (an activity that I've been doing with some regularity - you're reading my 114th blog post just on this forum!)

I am sharing that checklist here, not because it's particularly good, nor because I'm recommending that other people use it (obviously it's tailored to my idiosyncratic needs), but because I'm interested in sharing ideas and getting feedback!

Related things on this forum include a 2012 essay-publishing checklist by gwern, and Justis's writing advice list which is not directly a checklist but could be made into one (and indeed I copied a few items from it). Please comment with other references and suggestions! How would your own checklist differ from mine?

A couple more bits of commentary before we begin:

Checklist workflow: Good news is that pretty much every productivity-related app (e.g. logseq, roam, obsidian, emacs-org-mode, trello, etc.) has a very nice workflow for checklists - where you make a reusable checklist template, and then insert a fresh (non-checked-off) copy into the appropriate context, and then check off the items one-by-one. If you don't know the details, google it.

"Consider doing X" items: You'll notice that many of these checklist items are of the form "Consider doing X". Often what that means for me in practice is:

I get to the checklist item "Consider doing X";

I consider doing X, and decide not to;

I happily check it off.

That's fine! It's not always a good use of time to make a blog post higher-quality. The one you're reading right now is a great example: I am writing this post very quickly, and I stand by that decision.

OK, that's enough commentary! The rest of the post is the checklist itself.

The actual checklist! (2023-08-15 version)

Copyediting items

Check for unexplained or unnecessary jargon & acronyms.

Check for jargon & acronyms that are defined in one part of the post and then used in a distant part of the post without repeating the definition.

Check for unnecessarily obscure words and cultural references (for non-native English speakers)

Check for vague "this"

Check for over-hedging

Consider checking that all the hyperlinks actually go to the intended destination

Consider adding more hyperlinks, references, and footnotes

Consider adding a self-contained summary / table-of-contents / tl;dr to the top

Consider adding humorous things

Consider looking at each section and asking: "Can I delete this?"

Consider looking at each paragraph and asking: "Can I delete this?"

Consider whether there's anything I can move out of the main text and into a footnote (or hyperlink)

Consider replacing (or at least supplementing) strawman arguments with better versions (even in the context of a "common misperceptions" discussion)

Consider replacing criticism with "let's try to do better" type language

Consider replacing criticism of individuals / groups with criticism of papers / ideas / plans

Consider adding pictures, possibly including AI-generated.

Consider adding concrete examples

Consider "not being lazy / rushed" (e.g. if the text says "I don't know X" or "I didn't check Y" etc., consider whether I should sort that out before publishing)

Make sure images / tables / etc. look OK in both light mode and dark mode (e.g. diagrams probably need a white background, not transparent).

Check that the sidebar outline looks right

Check that "> blah" sections have been reformatted as proper quote blocks (after copy-pasting from google docs)

Consider asking GPT for copyediting advice (see below)

Consider sharing the draft with ...