korrents

korrents · piece

To Be Useful You Must Risk Offending

Nat Eliason · 22 Oct 2025 · nateliason.com ↗

3 korrents from this piece

Nat Eliason did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Being genuinely useful requires a willingness to risk offending people.

    Their wordsAn idea I'm trying to hold tighter is that the only way to be useful here is to risk offending people. And perhaps if you're not taking any risk offending people then it's unlikely you're saying something useful.

  2. Our reading

    Content that avoids any combative or provocative stance is unlikely to go viral.

    Their wordsThere is some truth to the idea that you are unlikely to go viral if you do not adopt some of this combative stance.

  3. Our reading

    Public disagreement with a piece of writing tends to be loud while agreement with it tends to be silent and go unnoticed.

    Their wordsAgreement is often quiet. It's the likes, it's the shares, it's the nods as people read along at their computers that you never hear about.