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About this quote

What does it mean?
Keynes states that he only considers his serious writing to begin after he sees the proofs returned from the printer.
In plain terms
He starts serious work only after getting printed drafts back.
What can you take from it?
Seeing a draft in print changes how a writer engages with it.

Where it applies

  • writing workflows
  • editing
  • academic publishing

Putting it to work

  • review printed drafts
  • allow time for iteration

Questions to consider

  • When does work become serious?
  • What triggers your best writing?

Another view

It ignores the work done before the proof stage.

More from John Maynard Keynes

  1. If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe a million, it has.

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  2. When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.

    Permalink to quote #21

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