🏗️ **文章的结构化设计理念**：Michael Dean 将建筑设计的原理引入写作，提出非虚构文章可以像建筑一样，通过预设的模式而非纯粹的灵感来构建。他认为，理解并运用这些结构能够提升文章的质量和可读性。

📄 **“文章架构”27种模式框架**：Michael Dean 发展了一个包含27种模式的框架，将文章分析归纳为“观点（Idea）”、“形式（Form）”和“语调（Voice）”三个核心维度。这套框架旨在系统化地理解和教授写作技巧，使写作过程更加可控和可学习。

🧠 **编辑重塑思维与AI的辅助作用**：对话强调了编辑过程对作者思维的重塑作用，指出编辑不仅仅是修改文字，更是对思考方式的调整。同时，探讨了如何有效地利用AI作为辅助工具，在不削弱写作者主体性的前提下，提升写作效率和反馈质量。

🎭 **写作的文化风险**：文章最后提出警告，如果继续将写作仅仅视为一种“感觉”或“氛围”，而非一种有章可循的模式化技能，可能会对文化产生潜在风险。这暗示了对写作教学和实践的深刻反思的必要性。

Michael Dean — architect-turned-writer, O’Shaughnessy Fellow, and creator of Essay Architecture — joins the show to explore the hidden structures beneath nonfiction and why essays, like buildings, can be designed with patterns rather than left to inspiration.

We discuss the origins of Essay Architecture, Michael’s 27-pattern framework that maps essays across Idea, Form, and Voice, and how to make craft teachable and AI feedback useful without replacing the writer. Along the way, we dive into architecture school critiques, why publishable doesn’t mean perfect, how editing rewires thinking, and the cultural risks if we keep treating writing as vibes instead of patterns.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

Michael’s Website Substack X/Twitter Profile

Show Notes:

The Architecture of Essays: from Design School to Writing Frameworks The Pattern Language: Idea, Form, and Voice Local Nuance vs Global Stylekits Fundamentals before Breaking Rules: Joyce, Picasso, the Beatles Quality Without a Name Leveling the College Playing Field The Two Sandboxes of Fundamentals and Amplification Gamification, Play and Motivation Beyond the Five-paragraph Essay: Emerson and AI in Education Scoring Great Essays: Why David Foster Wallace takes Three Top Spots How Writing Colonized the brain Editing as Belief-rewiring: Why Writers Avoid It and Why Math Helps The King of Biases: Confirmation Bias Michael as Emperor of the World

Books Mentioned:

Works on Wall Street; Jim O’Shaughnessy Essay Architecture (in progress) ; by Michael Dean A Pattern Language; by Christopher Alexander The Best American Essays 2024 Anthology; by Wesley Morris and Kim Dana Kupperman Consider the Lobster; by David Foster Wallace The White Album; by Joan Didion Shooting an Elephant; by George Orwell Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man; by James Joyce Finnegan’s Wake; by James Joyce Towards a Golden Age; Paul Graham The Limits of Scientific Reasoning; by David Faust The WEIRDest People in the World; by Joseph Henrich