You can’t write well if you don’t read—properly.

Every five minutes, your LinkedIn feed is flooded with AI slop: low-quality, machine-generated posts that people share without a second thought. You start to wonder: Is it a lack of self-criticism? Zero awareness or insight? Or do they simply lack the ability to write?

In today’s workplace, we’re trained to communicate rather than narrate. Short notes are prized over long-form prose—they’re critical, efficient, valued. As Blaise Pascal put it: “I’m sorry this letter is so long; I didn’t have time to make it shorter.”

At the same time, we’re bombarded with information at a humongous pace—far more than in decades past. Emails, product reports, news, complex concepts: we have to process it all in the sliver of time available. So we scan, cherry-picking the basics. In doing so, we forget to absorb how those ideas are communicated.

I’m not talking about your colleagues’ lackluster emails. I’m talking about the articles, white papers, and manifestos you actually read (if you ever do). By skimming them, we lose our capacity to narrate: to spot the hook, build argument structure, and craft a compelling flow.

My advice? Next time you read, pay attention to how it’s written—study the narrative arc. Engage deeply, so you’re not just informed, but inspired.

Great teachers are great salespeople because they sell ideas and knowledge through stories. That’s how we truly learn. Start reading like a writer, and you’ll write like one.