Why write?
I. necessity
I need to offload my thoughts. Writing them down helps me process them and actually think.
There’s a certain type of thinking that can only be done by writing. Thoughts will remain tangled in my mind if not poured onto the page. Ideas perish if not captured in time.
Journalling is slowing down today so I can go faster in the future. If not faster, steadier. With more conviction.
Writing also allows me to transfer negative emotions onto paper instead of other people. It helps me return to equilibrium and release things from memory. Essential for maintaining emotional homeostasis.
In short: I write to remember. I write to forget. I write to think.
II. fun
I just love writing - synthesizing my thoughts, documenting moments and feelings, romanticizing life. It puts me in a flow state.
Why publish?
What is my goal with this website? Why make my thoughts public? What should I share and not share?
I. serendipity
It is valuable to write clearly of course, to a degree. Clear writing is clear thinking. But to make the content accessible? To cut digressions and obscure references to reduce the number of things people need to understand to make sense of your argument? Really? That is against our purposes here. A blog post is a search query. You write to find your tribe; you write so they will know what kind of fascinating things they should route to your inbox.
– Henrik Karlsson
Borrowing his words, this is where I “show the inside of [my] head in public, so people can see if they would like to live in there.”
II. reducing repetition
By writing my thoughts down, I don’t have to repeat myself as much in conversation. E.g. I can just link things over text.
When calling a friend I want to hear about them more than I want to talk about me. This is a more efficient way to share. It frees up more time to talk about new ideas during convos. I want conversations to be generative.
III. exposure therapy
Publishing my thoughts exposes me to 2 things I flinch from:
- imperfection. A lot of these are first drafts that I don’t return to. I might not agree with some of them, which doesn’t sit well with me since they’re public. But that’s the point.
- judgement. I want to get comfortable with feeling exposed. I think of this as practicing vulnerability at scale.
Publishing trains me to get into the habit of valuing done over perfect. On the balance beam of quality and quantity, I need to shift towards quantity.
I tend to look back at stuff I’ve written in the past and cringe at how naive I used be/how bad I used to write. I think this is generally a good thing - it means I’ve grown! So, I don’t want to feel the need to hide my past selves.
IV. feedback
Being wrong publicly allows me to take advantage of Cunningham’s Law.
V. less effort
Beliefs change all the time as we learn new things. Crafting a polished online presence that’s always up to date with my beliefs is too much work.
Who am I writing for?
For myself and for people like me who might gain value from my notes to self.
Sometimes, I like to address myself in second person when noting something down for future me. This way, the reminder holds more weight when I read it again - it feels like someone is speaking directly to me.
Occasionally, I like to write to one specific person, e.g. write as if I’m updating a friend. I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who advised doing so. It’s fun!
related: digital garden