Abigail Thomas

Are there a couple of books you want to recommend that informed your writing process?

Well, in the micro memoir world, certainly Abigail Thomas was the biggest influence, from Safekeeping long time ago, to her more recent work.

Three Dog Life, of course, is a favorite, and her more recent work about being 80 and what comes next, I think.

Yes.

Small advantages might compound into a winner-take-all outcome.

Thanks to Lynch Jong for discussions that inspired this post, and to Abigail Thomas and Chad GPT Sol for writing assistance.

Is Sol less obnoxious than Fable or am I merely less exposed to its verbal tics? This article was narrated by Type 3 Audio for Less Wrong.

It was published on August 30, 2026.

I've been in publishing on both sides of the publishing wall, an assigning editor, editor-in-chief, somebody who wrote prolifically, who's had students write and get published in Modern Love, New York Times, Washington Post, all the places.

And I think that the biggest skill, and my friend Abigail Thomas is a good representative of that is to always have a curious mind.

She'll look at something and think, why is that? And I think that is key with being a creative person, with being a journalist.

So it's a skill set that is not often spoken about, but if you have it, it enables you to be resourceful.