Iteration is the Slow Death of Critical Thinking

We get it, you only have one thing to say.

Photo by Gu Kssn

Iteration is one of the newer buzzwords in writing online.

It’s so simple; write a story, then write it again, and again, and again.

Each time you produce a slightly different version with the hopes of replicating the same viral results.

Hit on something that resonates with people and suddenly you’ve found the magic money printer.

But if you only have one thing to say, are you really putting yourself through the experience and growth needed to be a writer?

Or, are you just happy to keep parroting on about the same topic, from the same angle, ever more?

Rewriting top stories

Writing a successful story is moonshot.

It could take hundreds of articles before an audience (or algorithm) reacts positively.

When something goes viral, it’s exciting — I’ve been there.

What follows is desperate temptation to replicate that success.

So, you start iterating.

You take the same core idea and spin it in different ways, hoping to strike gold again.