L.M. Sacasas on Instant Messenger Over Instant Messenger

Knowing when to shift between public and private thinking—when to blast an idea online, when to let it slow bake—is a crucial new skill: cognitive diversity. When I get blocked while typing away at a project on my computer, I grab a pencil and paper, so I can use a tactile, swoopy, this-connects-to-that style of writing to unclog my brain. Once an

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writing was not just a way to record what someone said; it could help you decide what you would say before you said it. And words were not just the pieces of speaking; they were the pieces of thinking. When you wrote them down, you could grasp your thoughts like bricks in your hands and push them into different arrangements. Writing let you look at

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“I think of writing as externalized thinking. If I have a very hard problem or if I feel a little bit confused about something, I have not found anything better to do than sit down and make myself write it out... it is a super powerful thinking tool.”

One reason clear thinking is important, Sam argues, is because it’s crucial for clear communication... See more

Every communication medium is political, a conduit of power as much as thought. In extending the range of speech, writing widened the scope of personal and institutional influence. A written word had the potential to shape the thinking and behavior of far more people, around the globe and down the ages, than a spoken one ever could. The expansion o

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