lost in ideaspace

When you're writing about a topic that fascinates you, it's easy—too easy—to zero in on the most interesting (to you) bits. Rabbit holes are fine for the casual newsletter or social media post, but in most cases, we owe our readers a comprehensive look at our subject. Enthusiasm blinds us to the big picture.

To avoid this intellectual myopia, make an effort during the pre-outlining stage to fully explore the ideaspace. Map the terrain before planning your journey:

• Do the decimal. Browse the surrounding shelf using the Dewey Decimal system. You might stumble upon related aspects you hadn't yet considered. (The Library of Congress system works for this, too.)
• Map your mind. Use MindNode (Mac only), Apple's Freeform, Xmind (cross-platform), or pen-and-paper per Tony Buzan to branch out from your initial idea in as many directions as possible.
• Make connections. Like the host of one of my favorite TV shows, play a game of free association, leapfrogging from one topic to the next until you've built out a list of a dozen or so items. Then, skim your list for useful additions to your outline. To give this more structure, Baconize it: pick a seemingly distant, unrelated topic and try to branch to it in as few hops as possible. For example, to get from the Tudors to the Moon landing: the Tudors drove exploration which led to the Industrial Revolution which led to the Wright brothers’ flight which led to the Apollo program. Get the idea?

And yeah, you can use ChatGPT or Claude to build things out, if you want to be futuristic. But the old ways work fine. The important thing is to dig beneath those bright and shiny objects. That's where you tend to find the juiciest stuff. The goal isn't to be encyclopedic. Just thorough and thoughtful.