Yesterday, Felix Salmon of Fusion doled out some grim advice for young journalists, namely that “life is not good for journalists” and that jobs in journalism, like his, are a combination of luck and privilege. Don’t do it, he says. Vox‘s Ezra Klein offered a rebuttal encouraging young journalists to trade prestige for opportunity, to outwork their elders, and to do work that will get noticed.

Advice for budding journalists, from @felixsalmon. (tl;dr: don't do it!) http://t.co/lJmQ02MdNT

— felix salmon (@felixsalmon) February 9, 2015

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/564924221571497984

Journalists took to Twitter to offer some of their own advice. Here’s some of the best. Scroll down for a live feed of the hashtag which is now trending on Twitter.

@jbarro @felixsalmon I think that's true for the vast majority of journalists. It's become a classic superstar economy. Like acting.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 9, 2015

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/564905115099078656

Read. Read everything. Read newspapers, magazines, websites, great literature. All help form your writing style #AdviceForYoungJournalists

— Alan Fisher (@AlanFisher) February 10, 2015

https://twitter.com/albertocairo/status/565138217109045248

https://twitter.com/mkramer/status/564961585551380480

This I wholeheartedly endorse RT @modernistwitch: Archive everything you write. #AdviceForYoungJournalists

— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) February 10, 2015

Next #AdviceForYoungJournalists: don't work for free. They say 'work for exposure', but as every mountaineer knows, you can die of exposure.

— richard glover (@rgloveroz) February 10, 2015

Read voraciously. Build community. Earn our trust. Tweet your beat. Learn to code. Be a skeptic. Show your work.#AdviceForYoungJournalists

— Alex Howard (@digiphile) February 10, 2015

#AdviceForYoungJournalists Be creative, factual & honest. Just WRITE it. Never betray a source. Believe in yourself. Respect all, fear none.

— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) February 10, 2015

https://twitter.com/danfagin/status/564954454223757312
https://twitter.com/dabeard/status/564964751906963457

#AdviceForYoungJournalists Pick up the phone. Not joking. Ring them up. In person. On their cell phone. At the weekend.

— emily bell (@emilybell) February 10, 2015

Advice for young journalists: everyone has to think differently about careers in the future, nothing is assured.Still best job in the world.

— emily bell (@emilybell) February 9, 2015

Tell stories that aren't being heard. Amplify unheard voices. "Go to where the silence is" – Amy Goodman. #AdviceforYoungJournalists

— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) February 10, 2015

https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/564997683564523520

https://twitter.com/webjournalist/status/564997557571837952

https://twitter.com/modernistwitch/status/564963964388638720

#AdviceForYoungJournalists Tweets

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Aleszu Bajak

Aleszu Bajak was the founding editor of Storybench. He is currently the director of data visualization at the Urban Institute. Previously, he was a senior data reporter on USA TODAY's data team, part of the newspaper's national investigative unit. He is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at M.I.T., was a founding senior writer at Undark magazine and founding editor of Esquire Classic, a project resuscitating the magazine's archives. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, M.I.T. Technology Review and Nature.

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