Ava (X) is one of my favorite writers. She writes full-time for her Substack, Bookbear Express, and focuses on love, friendship, emotions, culture, and psychology.

I'm not sure there's anyone I've more consistently recommended to friends and loved ones in recent years, and it seems like the world agrees: Ava now has over 30,000 subscribers. One of my favorite parts of this episode was reading excerpts from Ava's essays over the years back to her. We cover a ton of ground, including writing, consistency, commitment, friendship, authenticity, self-respect, taste, beauty, and much more.

Timestamps:

(1:09): What makes for good writing & what Ava writes about
(5:49): Flow, Writing Practice, Consistency, Commitment, and Maintenance
(14:08): Audience Consideration, Vulnerability, Sincerity, and Ava's Readership
(26:30): Feedback Loops, Getting Better at Writing
(28:51): Distribution and Growth; Writing Online vs. Making a Living with Writing
(34:39): Social Psychology and Seeing People More Clearly
(36:21): Do People Change?
(42:44): Relationships & Helping Others Find Love
(44:32): The Friendship Theory of Everything
(1:00:35): Consistency, Self-Respect, and Self-Trust
(1:03:45): Frames: Consistency in Our Relationships with Others
(1:08:21): Authenticity and Honesty
(1:15:12): Taste & Interiority
(1:24:14): Two Core Interests: Relationships and Technology
(1:26:12): San Francisco
(1:29:48): Writing in the Second Person
(1:31:52): Substack Recommendations and a Novel
(1:33:07): Motivation & Energy
(1:33:50): 10 Years Back, 10 Years Ahead
(1:35:46): Uselessness
(1:39:06): Beauty

Links & Resources:

Ava's Writing:

Others:

The Elif Life | Elif Batuman
Out of It | Mary Gaitskill

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4: Ava - Alive in Writing and in Love

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