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This post first appeared on aud.life

A friend of mine just wrapped up a stint as an op-ed writer for a major publication. She’s relieved, she says, to not have to come up with an opinion-a-week. (It was not just a matter of coming up with an opinion – it was coming up with one that editors liked, thought timely and clickworthy, and wanted to publish.)

The pressure to write “hot takes” is ridiculous, and often online writers are expected to churn them out quite rapidly, not just regularly. You’re supposed to response to the latest Internet outrage (or virality, I suppose) of the day. And there’s little time to sit and stew and to figure out what your “take” might be. It has to be served fresh.

(Or, alternately, it can simply be served “dumb.” That’s how I’d characterize David Brooks’ columns, for example. Wouldn’t you?)

I’ve thought a lot lately about changes I want to (need to) make to my work life, in part because of [redacted financial expense]. So some days, I want to write more freelance pieces and travel less. But then again, I really enjoy the types of written pieces that I compose as keynotes. And jesus, I’ve got to finish Teaching Machines.

So I don’t know. I’ve thought about pursuing a position as an op-ed writer somewhere. (“Contributor” or whatever.) Got any leads?

But I do worry about having to have a “hot take” regularly. I mean, I have opinions all the fucking time. But I worry about having to craft that into an interesting argument to the drumbeat of an editorial calendar. I see so much lousy content online that obviously serves just this: it met the deadline. It met the word count. But it said nothing.

Perhaps this all just reflects some of my feelings of self-doubt lately – that I’m not really up-to-snuff when it comes to being a writer. (This is, of course, one of the benefits of speaking. You get immediate encouragement and typically pretty friendly responses from people face-to-face. The Internet, on the other hand, is full of assholes.)

Or perhaps it reflects the in-between-ness of my work: it’s not academic; it’s not pop. It’s grounded in research, but it’s full of opinion. It’s specialist, but a specialty with limited appeal (particularly when you’re critical of the field).

I’ve been working on Hack Education for five years now. It’s the longest I’ve worked at one “job” in my life. (Grad school doesn’t count, does it?) Maybe it’s time for something different? (Fortunately I have two ideas for a “what’s next” book-wise – neither project deals directly with ed-tech. What a relief.)

Audrey Watters


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Audrey Watters

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