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Re:Ask HN: Can you give me some advice on writing essays? by AnimalMuppet on Friday September 25, 2015 @01:25PM (#10279422)
I'd say that my action is this: If you don't have something to say, don't say it. If you don't have something to say right now, don't view yourself as being stuck. You don't have to have something to say right now (or ever, for that matter). Don't waste your time trying to have something to say. When you do, you'll know. In the meantime, go do something else, rather than trying to "find" something to say.

Your advice is on how to find something to say, and it's fine (though it's not the only way to get there). My advice is how to think/feel about your situation when you don't have something to say.

I said that your advice isn't the only way to find something to say, because the something to say doesn't have to be something intellectual. Go do some interesting intellectual work - that's fine. But also, go fall in love. Go start playing sports. Go on vacation. Go take up a hobby. In any of those, you can find something to say, not because you're desperately trying to find something to say, but because you're out living life instead of racking your brain looking for something to say.

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