No One In The World Writes Like The Cultural Tutor

Your success as a writer boils down to your style. And today, you’re going to learn how to master the two different types of style — minimalism vs. maximalism — from the style-king himself: The Cultural Tutor.

Minimalism is clear, concise, and direct. It distills an idea. Maximalism captures the texture, the nuance, the beauty of life. It creates an environment for your reader to inhabit. Style is a spectrum. And the sweet spot of memorable writing comes from the tension of competing forces — concision and beauty; Simplicity and texture; minimalism and maximalism.

If you want to develop a distinct and unforgettable style, then this episode is for you.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:50 The history of Maximalism vs. Minimalism
00:06:50 How to define Maximalism vs. Minimalism
00:14:35 What do we give up with modern writing
00:16:45 What writing can learn from design trends
00:26:30 Writing online and clickbait
00:28:25 How The Cultural Tutor writes on Twitter / X
00:30:45 Evolving technologies - from typewriter to word processor
00:32:40 Copy and paste William Shakespeare into Microsoft Word
00:39:00 Mass media and decline of regional dialects
00:41:10 Are people less literate from 150 years ago?
00:47:10 Rewriting makes us better
00:51:45 What's the point of writing?
00:58:45 The best tactics from both Maximalism vs. Minimalism
01:06:00 Where does "passion" come from?
01:11:50 Writing Example (Winston Churchill)

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ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

[DavidPerellChannel]

Something strange has happened.

Writing has homogenized, and nonfiction books recycle the same washed-up formulas. The name of the game is short words and short sentences. Minimalism rules the day, and the Internet has fueled this simple style.

So, why did writing get sterile?

Well, that’s the focus of this interview with The Cultural Tutor.

Turns out, as I learned, the world of writing has always oscillated between minimalism and maximalism. People assume that the writing of old was always complex and convoluted, but that’s not true. Sure, the King James Bible may have a few archaisms, but it’s pretty darn readable.

The Age of Minimalism that we’re swimming in today is downstream of Hemingway and World War I.

Hemingway was famous for using simple words and sentence structures. He aimed for clarity, and that aim shook the world. A review in The Atlantic from 1927 said: “A writer named Hemingway has arisen, who writes as if he had never read anybody’s writing, as if he had fashioned the art of writing himself.”

Hemingway’s style was once radical. Now, it’s the water we swim in. To be clear: the benefits of minimalism are many. It’s clear and efficient. Like a mother cutting up a slab of meat for their toddler, writers work to make their ideas hyper-digestible.

And don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a screed against minimalism, which can be a joy to read. When it’s done well, it’s easy to read and understand. This is why you’d be insane to write a business memo in the style of James Joyce or David Foster Wallace.

The cultural blast radius of World War I also ushered in the Age of Minimalism — not just in writing but many aspects of culture. The world of architecture saw the rise of the Bauhaus movement which celebrated straight lines, flat roofs, and plain ornamentation-free facades; and the world of painting shifted violently from the soft vibrancy of Impressionism to the rigid edges of Piet Mondrian. And don’t forget about design. Your grandma’s walls were probably covered in wallpaper, but these days, it seems like every new-build has the same flat, white, and texture-free walls. Even the logos of fashion houses like Burberry and Saint Laurent have lost their ornamentation. The same thing has happened to doorbells, phone booths, street poles, and bookshelves.

Something clearly happened. Not just in writing, but culture writ large. The spectrum between minimalism and maximalism infuses every aspect of culture — and we are squarely in The Age of Minimalism.

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

People don’t question the guardrails that homogenize modern writing either. Hundreds of millions of people use the Microsoft Word spellchecker every day and Grammarly directs people towards a unified style. Both software platforms ridicule the writing of Shakespeare, who’s arguably the most prominent writer in the history of English.

My goal isn’t to hate on Word and Grammarly. But they do have a way of watering down your voice (and sometimes, that’s a good thing). Lest you dismiss me as a hypocritical luddite, know that I accepted a Grammarly suggestion to write this tweet and think the advice to write with shorter words and sentences is useful for casual writers.

For writers, this means that an edge exists for people who can write in a maximalist style. With vibe, voice, flair, variance, and personality as if you’re dialing up the saturation on your writing. That’s what this episode is all about.

[iiling]

Yay, Sheehan is back! He is a breath of fresh air and I couldn't agree more with his thoughts and insights on this matter. Thank you, David, for having him.

[producedbypodcast]

With the settings, production quality, preparation, etc. it feels almost like a cinema experience. 🍿Love the podcast and the guest was awesome!

[industrialize]

Loved the first episode so glad to see him back. This guy is an absolute genius.

[mynameisYEMAN]

Great conversation - Sheehan is a great pick to be a reoccurring guest on the show. His perspective is a breath of fresh air and I genuinely appreciate the conviction he has in his takes. More, please!

PS. The bit about "passion" reminds me of JFM... is he the next guest? :P

[iLoveWriting]

Loved the first interview you did with The Cultural Tutor! Can't wait to watch this one now!

[katalyze]

This podcast series is genuinely so good, the only thing I wish I saw more of is Fictional authors! ❤

[stercorarius]

Really enjoyed this one as well as the previous one. Thanks you two!

[DigitalNovelist]

I put a chapter of my novel into ClaudeAI and asked for improvements.

It stuffed my story full of inert imagery. As AI is injected into more tools like Word, we'll see increased flattening of prose in literature.

The only way to prevent it is to dare to be imperfect. Take the time to write human and discover how you think.

It's slow. But good thinking (and writing) is the result of deliberate action.

[soundplume]

These episodes are really terrific and well done. 👍🏻

[DavidPerellChannel]

*Personal Takeaway from This Episode*

We're reading and writing more than ever, but not as intently as we used to.

The sheer number of words people read has gone up. People spend hours per week on activities like reading emails and scrolling Twitter. But this isn't the kind of reading that leads to clarity of thought. It's surface-level. There's no rereading.

The same thing has happened with writing. People spend more time typing than before, but that's not what makes you a better writer. If it were, then the knowledge workers who fire off 100, 000 emails in a career would write as well as Hemingway. So, what's the move? Years ago, the author Venkatesh Rao published a post about how to become a better writer. Here's the TLDR: It's not the amount you spend writing that makes you a better writer; it's the amount of time you spend rewriting.

The speed of life has gotten so fast. People don't have the attention spans to grapple with books or revise and revise a draft until it's perfect, but those are the activities that improve your thinking.

My point isn't that everybody should read and write intensely. That's unrealistic. But there's a level of seriousness that the most committed writers alive today don't bring to their craft.

To be clear, I'm guilty as charged. I write this from the thick of the fight, not as somebody who's overcome it. And my report from the trenches of information warfare is this: When it comes to the intellectual life, we're at war with our media environment.

[sultanalshirah]

It is about time you host him. His great story, you were part of it as well.

[lighto]

Honestly, I was rewatching the last episode when I saw this.

[zaccrowlands]

Fantastic discussion.

Between this podcast and the one with Mark Forsyth I believe I’m about to get lost in the rabbit hole of vocabulary.

I’ve become insatiably curious about what’s waiting for me underneath the surface.

[greigdouglas]

Cool conversation. I don’t think Hemingway was a minimalist, though. What he left unsaid in his prose is open to endless - maximalist - interpretation. The part of the iceberg under water is rather larger than the bit exposed :)

[sameersohail]

Funny I get a Grammarly ad right after he talks about the limitations of Word and Grammarly