The Techwriter Highlight - Andrew Smith

Andrew talks about tech at GoatFury's FutureScape.

This week in the Tech Writer’s Highlight, we interview

Andrew Smith

, who writes

GoatFury's FutureScape

. We talk about his foray into writing and his background in JiuJitsu. Enjoy!

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First, tell us a bit about yourself. Who are you, what is your day job, what are your professional interests?

Martial arts have been central to my life for more than 25 years now. Two decades ago, I made an honest run at making a living at least tangentially related to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I've never really looked back. I think much of this motivation came from a genuine entrepreneurial spirit that was somehow embedded in my metaphorical DNA at a very early age. 

Today, I have 3 jiu-jitsu schools that are always in the mix for me professionally. The gym where I spend the most time, and the one I founded in 2006, is called Revolution BJJ.  

I was obsessed with competing in BJJ for many years, and so I founded a tournament circuit called US Grappling with some good friends. Together, we crafted USG into one of the very best jiu-jitsu tournaments in existence. We ran some 150 events and improved the culture of jiu-jitsu competitions nationally. Unfortunately, USG was another casualty of the pandemic.  Fortunately for me, Revolution BJJ and its sister schools survived. 

I also started a BJJ encyclopedia of sorts called BJJ Path. If you're interested in peeking into my jiu-jitsu brain, that is the closest approximation that exists. 

I have a burning curiosity to understand the world, and jiu-jitsu is one way this curiosity has manifested itself over the years, but it is far from the only way.

Now tell us about the GoatFury Substack. What is it about? What topics do you cover? Who is your intended audience?

Every single day, I sit down to write for a few hours. I have this luxury due to business ownership and being able to make my own schedule, but I'm also driven to share what's inside my brain. 

I feel strongly that being able to do this is incredibly important, and the speed of today's change means it's also urgent. That's a big part of why I sometimes seem to have unlimited writing energy! We need as many smart folks as we can muster talking about these changes and thinking about how to address them, and this is the best way I know to do this. 

How, when, and why did you begin writing about technical topics on the Internet?

I've been writing on the Internet for as long as possible, probably close to 30 years now. Over the course of those decades, I've been a content creator, unable to stop making things. I created an e-commerce site in the late 90s, wrote descriptions of things I was selling on eBay (and on my site), and gradually created a journalistic enterprise centered around jiu-jitsu and the budding world of "NHB" (nowadays called "MMA"). This enterprise took me across the country to early UFC events and other smaller MMA shows, and then eventually to Brazil, where I competed and wrote about the world championships, among other things. 

Over the last 15 years, I've gravitated toward writing about how rapid technological change affects the world. I simply can't get enough of this, and 2023 happens to be a very, very exciting time to write about these changes.  There is never a shortage of ideas or topics!  All I have to do is look around outside. 

What role does technical writing play in your job and life?

"Job" is a funny, loaded word, so I'm sort of going to answer this in my own manner. I regard the work I do on Substack (and which I have done in the past elsewhere) to be among the most important work I could be doing, and I'm incredibly grateful to have the privilege to work on this stuff every single day, first thing.  Getting into flow state with writing (and with jiu jitsu) is a key to my sanity, productivity, and well-roundedness. 

In regard to the work I still do for jiu-jitsu, I will often write about how to do moves, or how to improve, or fundamental underlying concepts of the martial art. I'm certainly staying in practice by writing on a regular basis. 

How is your writing process? How do you organize your writing schedule? How much time does writing take you, on average?

Every morning, I get about 3 hours to myself to write. I don't always use all 3 hours, but I always like to have that time reserved for myself. I keep an idea repository, but no drafts (on a typical day, anyway).  I'll talk a LOT more about my writing process in my 100th post!  A lot of folks have asked about this, and I'm eager to share but don't want to take up all the oxygen in the room from this piece. 

What kind of advice could you give people considering or getting started with technical writing?

Try it. Don't think too much about it, just dive in. You're going to make a lot of mistakes!  But that's a very good thing; every mistake you make is a check mark in a box, and once you've learned from your mistakes, your writing is going to improve. 

But you have to practice your craft every day in order to really get good at it.  Try writing for at least 10 minutes daily, even if you don't have anything to say. Further, try reading for at least an hour every day, no matter what! If you can't concentrate for an hour straight, try ten minutes today, then 11 minutes tomorrow.  Reading muscles are close cousins to writing muscles. 

Any closing words you’d like to share with the readers of The Tech Writers Stack?

Thank you all so much for creating and maintaining such a cool community! Writers like me have an incredible support network, and that matters a great deal any time you're trying to scale up and reach a lot of folks.

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