Why You Should Write
The thinking mind is like the eye.
The mind likes to wander. It'll constantly skip around and change focus unless it has something to tie it down.
Think of meditation, and how the mind hops between the surface of various ideas like a stone skipping across… Show more
Why You Should Write The thinking mind is like the eye. The mind likes to wander. It'll constantly skip around and change focus unless it has something to tie it down. Think of meditation, and how the mind hops between the surface of various ideas like a stone skipping across… Show more
Good writing is meditative writing. It’s a polished and cohesive train of thought, devoid of superfluous babble. If intrusive thoughts make their way into your writing and you neglect to edit them out, your work will suffer. Quality writing does not arise from a stream of consciousness or absent-mindedness. It’s a practice of meditating on a specif... See more
Jen Hitze • Attention, Distraction, and Your Responsibility
Hrisikesh Medhi and added
You should write because when you know that you’re going to write, it changes the way you live. I’m thinking about a book I read called Field Notes on Science & Nature , a collection of essays by scientists about their notes. It’s hard to imagine a more tedious concept — a book of essays about notes ? — but in execution it was wonderful. What i... See more
jsomers.net • More People Should Write
When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything wi... See more
jsomers.net • More People Should Write
- “When I have a piece of writing in mind, what I have, in fact, is a mental bucket: an attractor for and generator of thought. It’s like a thematic gravity well, a magnet for what would otherwise be a mess of iron filings. I’ll read books differently and listen differently in conversations. In particular I’ll remember everything better; everything... See more
jsomers.net • More People Should Write
Brian Sholis and added
Is that so bad? Isn't it common for skills to disappear when technology makes them obsolete? There aren't many blacksmiths left, and it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Yes, it's bad. The reason is something I mentioned earlier: writing is thinking. In fact there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing. You can't make this point better th
... See morePaul Graham • Writes and Write-Nots
This is one major reason I write; to continue to think, to process things. Sure, I use AI considerably in a lot of areas, like summarizing things, pulling out key points or to-dos, I even have it evaluate what I write, fix grammar, test the content to see if it is unique, cohesive, or compelling.
But, I don’t want to offload all of my thinking to AI and stop thinking. Similar to Paul’s point in the article, we used to get strong by working, now we workout to gain strength because working, in most cases, doesn’t provide this benefit for us.
I want to think and to think well. One of my favorite books this year is, “Clear Thinking” by Shane Parrish. I have invested a lot of time and energy into learning improve my thinking. It would be a shame to outsource it to token prediction algorithms.
The best way to improve your ability to think is to spend time thinking.
One way to force yourself to slow down and think is to write. Good writing requires good thinking.
Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide, making a lack of understanding visible.
One way to force yourself to slow down and think is to write. Good writing requires good thinking.
Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide, making a lack of understanding visible.
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Kyle Steinike added
he limits of writing push us toward greater clarity of expression, and, consequently, greater clarity of thought. Of course, this isn't a necessary outcome, lots of writing can be just as jumbled as our thinking. But in my own head I can convince myself that I know more or less what I mean and I'm not forced to put my thoughts in an order and form ... See more
Uri Bram • L.M. Sacasas on Instant Messenger Over Instant Messenger
sari added
At this point, some of you may be asking, “Being on the right side of thought is great and all, but is it really that important to spend your time thinking? After all, reflection doesn’t put food on the table, it doesn’t get the world’s businesses moving, and it sure as hell won’t drive my ass to work. So what’s the point?”
Lawrence Yeo • The Right Side of Thought - More To That
Ajinkya Wadhwa added