Vibe Writing

My new favorite way to bridge the awkward gap from idea to first draft (thx to Matt Stockton!):

1. When I'm working on something new, the first thing I do is start recording unstructured thoughts in a voice memo. I typically do this while walking, driving, or otherwise in-between things.

2. I take the entire transcript and drop it into an LLM (normally Gemini). I give a little context on the topic and format: is this for a LinkedIn/blog post? Approaches and criteria for Magic Lenses? Braindump for a new project?

3. Then, I start over. At my computer, I open the LLM output in one window, and a blank doc in another window. I start rewriting and/or copy-pasting elements from the LLM output into my doc.

👆 THIS STEP IS REALLY IMPORTANT to make sure you don't sound like AI.

BUT if I'm doing this as an organizational step for an internal project, I don't always rewrite everything, because Jake, Eli, and Kristen know I'm just trying to capture ideas, not get the words exactly right.

Why this works:

• Talking out loud can be easier when you're not sure what you want to say

• You can do it while walking or otherwise away from the pressure and distraction of a "focused" work environment

• LLMs are really good at summarizing and organizing information

• By providing the LLM tons of context (in the form of your brain dump), it helps avoid slop (versus, say, "write me a blog post about X Y Z with these three main points")

My old favorite way to bridge the gap: Jot down little notes here and there in Google Keep on my phone. I still do this a ton (and it still works really well) but there's something freeing about the open-endedness of a long-running voice memo...

Have you tried Vibe Writing like this or with a similar workflow?