How to Think in Writing

Writing increases your rate of revelation. This is true irrespective of the subject because writing is a process of reflection, assertion, and iteration.

Writing clarifies your own ideas. Writing begets new ideas too. Writing lets you explore ideas in depth even if you won’t have time to act on them all. Writing shows people how you think and lets ... See more

Whenever I don’t know what I think about something, I use this form of writing. In the hopes that my experience may clarify yours, here are some practical ways to go about it:

• All writing-to-think stems from a problem you’re wrestling with, or a problem you want to understand better. So the moment you become interested in a problem, make note of i

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While we naturally understand that writing is a good way to share ideas with others, we under-appreciate just how much good writing helps us think about an idea ourselves. Writing is not only a means of communication, it enables us to practice reasoning.

Benefit #1: See the flaws in your own thinking and start to see the nuance (or lack thereof) in other’s point of views

It’s one thing to espouse a belief in a discussion with friends over a beer and another thing entirely to try to turn that into a coherent essay. As I started writing, I started to see how I was able to develop much better ideas thr... See more