“If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.” - Leslie Lamport
I love writing. Or, I love the idea of writing. Or, more accurate, I love the ideas that I think are worth writing down.
And that’s where it gets tough: writing them down. This phrase, writing them down, hints at the real problem.
Countless ideas are bouncing around in our skulls. They glow with their own self- aggrandizement and promotion. Nobody continues to think something that they actually think is stupid, do they?
So writing is easy by itself. But capturing ideas in order to write them down entails the process of nailing ideas down to the ground, anchoring them down into the shared reality we inhabit with everyone else.
It’s fun to think up some quick witticism or quip and fire it off (see my LinkedIn). It’s a totally different experience to sit with your thoughts, to try to craft and mold them into something that carries weight, that has any sense of impact and staying power.
And so here we are, on a Substack that I’m trying to write for twice a week. Not because I think anybody cares what I’ve got to say. Not because I think they ought to. Not because I think they ever should or will.
But because forcing myself to think better is about the best thing I can do for both my present and future self. At least I think so.