Dissecting an action’s motivation can yield fascinating results. Consequently, it’s one of my favorite things to do. Why did you do that? Why did you think that? And more importantly. Why am I doing this? What am I thinking? I recently did just that for a short Friday morning breakfast talk.
Why write?
I started writing at the end of 2016 and haven’t been consistent ever since. The reason for starting wasn’t apparent. I thought it would be good that I would somehow benefit from it. I didn’t know how or why. It was painful at first and pretty lousy quality. However, I kept going, and today, I can clearly state why I do this and why I think you should, too.
Yep, that’s my motivation to get you to start writing. It’ll change your life; it’ll change you.
Write to learn
When you learn, focus on two things. Have an open mind and keep the end in mind. Learn as if you need to teach it tomorrow to someone else. And do it!
What better way to teach something than writing about it, incorporating your thoughts and arguments. While you write, you organize knowledge and distill it. New concepts start fuzzy, and as you write, they crystallize. Writing helps you on this journey.
When you put your words on paper, something magical happens. It starts as a vague idea, something you want to say; you don’t have the words yet, only the feeling. Arguments start forming as you keep at it, and words appear on the page. They slowly create sentences, and your knowledge consolidates.
Bringing abstract ideas into concrete forms will build the neural pathways that store new knowledge. The more you connect this with your existing pathways, the better it solidifies.
A great learning example post is the Angular state management I wrote earlier. I started knowing very little about both libraries and only had a vague idea about state management. By the time I finished the post, I was confident about the fundamentals.
Write to think
Spoken words fly away, while written words remain. You want it to be rock solid when you put something out to the world and know it’ll stay there and many people can potentially read it. You want to be able to stand by your claims.
For that, you must have thought it all through before making such claims. Your arguments might change as you think about them. Mine certainly did, in the Just Enough UX post I wrote a while back. It all started as a vague idea and something I have been telling people. I started the post to record my thoughts, which were flawed at points. The goal of the post shifted to reaching conclusions and obtaining answers instead of making an exclamation.
The argument became more precise, and the supporting points also strengthened. Writing it also reduced the cognitive load I had about this topic. Having a set structure and methodically approaching the writing allowed me to work through each claim and dive deeper to understand what I wanted to say. Doing this exercise regularly will strengthen your thinking muscles and logical reasoning abilities. Do it!
Write to share
What is knowledge worth if you can’t teach it to others? Sharing enables you to have a more significant impact. You can make an argument once and point to it years later, given that you haven’t changed your mind since. Even if you did, it’s great to tell people why that is so they can also follow and understand your reasoning. And hopefully, gain something in the process. I read many books and am grateful for all the authors sharing their work. Be it a collection of ancient wisdom, novel research, or a timeless classic. It inspires me, and I want to achieve the same with my posts.
Writing is a way of saying thank you to all the other writers out there. Recorded knowledge is a huge time-saver for all those coming after us. I can’t count how many hours I saved by reading through a blog post instead of going down the same rabbit hole as someone else did.
Writing and sharing is a form of value and fond memories. One of my purposes in life is to create value for others. It drives me forward, and I hope it will prompt you, even if it’s just a tiny bit.
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