the best writing is a funnel

the best writing functions like a funnel.

if you want to write well, most of what you produce should operate on multiple levels simultaneously. there should obviously be the surface level truth which is the thing anyone can understand with ~zero effort.

then there should be deeper truths embedded beneath.. like implications, patterns, models, & observations that only become visible if the reader has peripheral understanding of the macro & micro contexts (e.g. non obvious cultural references, or historical / tech references, or even what the current societal mood is).

this makes your writing multi dimensional. the same sentence means different things to different people depending on what they're capable of seeing (instead of broadcast it's now one to one). everyone enters through the same opening but only some readers make it all the way through.

the deeper they travel, the more the piece reveals.