Writing

penI have been wanting to write more content for a long time. I attempted to keep a daily diary a few times, have been telling myself to post frequent blog entries, tried doing thought downloads, but was unable to make it a part of my routine.

Writing is very important. It helps organize and clear the mind, put ideas in order, express thoughts in a structured way. Language is a two-way translator for our brain.

I don’t know what I think
until I write it down.

Joan Didion

Writing is hard. Good writers are not good because it is easy for them to write, they are good because they write a lot. Inspiration will only come if you write and write consistently.

I only write when inspiration strikes.
Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning.

William Faulkner

Why do I want to write?

I want to write to clear and organize my thoughts.

Thinking is hard, translating what goes on in our head into language is a very hard process, but it is a very helpful process to clear and organize our thoughts. There are things in there that will never go away unless they are acknowledged. Writing is a wonderful way to acknowledge them.

I want to write to make a statement, make choices, declare them, and stop wasting time with alternatives.

It is important to clear and organize thoughts, but sometimes there are still many options to consider and lately, I am on a mission to reduce my options, whether it is my clothing choices or system design choices.

I want to research an idea and learn it enough to be able to write about it.

Learning is hard, and learning it good enough to be able to explain it to somebody else is much harder. Sometimes I want to opt for that harder option and writing and putting it out there is a great way to accomplish that.

I want to show a good example for my children, write things for them to read, give them ideas to think about.

There are a lot of things that I want to tell my children and hearing things from somebody else is not always the best way to accept and internalize them.

First, a person talking has much less credibility, simply because of some of the things I wrote above, then written content. Second, reading as a means to ingest ideas is a much better option as ingest bandwidth through our eyes is much higher than through our ears. Third, reading allows you to sit with it in front of you, mix it with your thoughts, and let it in.

I will write more.

So there it is, a number of compelling reasons and a statement.

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