Knowledge sharing
I’m a self-taught programmer and some of the most valuable learning I did was by reading blogs, forums, and well-written documentation. The internet has revolutionized how the human collective knowledge is organized and appended to. But that’s is a topic for another day. Let’s go back in time to when modern human societies did not exist, but instead, there were globally dispersed bands of hunter-gatherers. Speaking was the only form of communication. The invention of writing was a major catalyst in the transition from these bands of hunter-gatherers to large-scale Civilizations like Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilization. If you are curious about how this happened, I would highly recommend this Book. Writing this blog is an effort to continue this rich tradition that our species has in sharing knowledge for the good.
Our lives are finite. Spending the limited time we have reinventing wheels is pointless. By writing about the mistakes that I committed and the learnings that I had along the way, I hope to save time and effort for the reader.
Efficient form of communication
Writing, among all other modes of communication, has the best decoupling between writers and readers. The pace at which I write can be completely different from the pace at which you are reading this article. This makes it easy for the writers to focus more on the content and less on things like enunciation and tone. And makes it easier for the reader to synthesize and comprehend the information at their reading speed, which might depend on factors like prerequisite knowledge and intent of reading.
Clarity of Thought
Writing helps cement understanding on any topic. Often, when writing something technical, I find myself revisiting what I wrote and doing fact checks for things that I previously assumed to be true. This continual process of metacognition forces you to think hard about what you are writing and in the process helps identify cognitive biases and knowledge gaps.
One of my favorite physicists and original thinkers is Richarch Feynman, who developed the Feynman Technique. Writing can not only be a form of sharing knowledge but can be a great tool to learn something new when it is incorporated into the Feynman Technique. The process of learning something through writing could look something like this:
- Decide on a topic to write about
- Learn about the topic
- Write about it.
- Reflect on what you wrote, have it peer-reviewed, and identify the gaps in your knowledge about the subject
- Repeat steps 2-4.
Revisit my thought process
I think writing about my thought process when making major life decisions can be very illuminating when reflecting with hindsight. By re-reading what has been written with a fresh perspective, I can empathize with my past self and someone who is currently in a similar position as my past self.
Also, it would be a lot of fun to understand the knowledge gaps that I had and the progress I made since writing.
Flow
Human memory, especially short-term memory is limited. Thanks to the monetization of human attention this past couple of decades, short-term memory and attention span are getting even shorter.
It is very easy to be constantly context switch between social media apps and tasks that you need to accomplish. This ultimately results in zero progress on any of the tasks. Without progress, it is hard to find any sense of completion or happiness in life.
For me, one of the joys in life is being in a flow state. This involves intensely focusing on something for an extended period. I often find myself in a flow state when playing a game of basketball, reading something interesting, playing a game of chess, or hacking on a project. Writing gives me another avenue to be in the flow state as it involves being in a different headspace than doing something which involves less creativity.
If you’ve got any comments or suggestions, feel free to hmu at sm4548@columbia.edu