I think we writers are incredibly lucky. We have a job where we are paid to learn new and fascinating things. Several times a week, I get to interview some of the most interesting people in the world—scientists, engineers, roboticists, and other people who make things. Often, I don’t really know much about the specific topics I am calling them about. I couldn’t engineer my way out of a paper bag. I don’t have the patience to be a scientist, and I wouldn’t know an Arduino boar

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Longform, this weekend and the guest on the episode was Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates is a writer, journalist, and educator. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction. He was also the recipient of a “Genius Grant“. So I was hanging on his every word. Coates said, “The sooner you get roughs done, the better you’re off all the time. Because then you can sit back and say this is working, this is not working, can we change this.