The worst thing to do while writing is reading another essay. Because all of a sudden - you compete, instead of expressing A strange benchmark to beat emerges. When all one should be doing is penning things down I often think about how this applies to life too.

Not to imply one shouldn’t read - a lot of writing well, is referencing well. You need those bits of inspiration. But not while doing the thing. It happens before or after the thing is done.