Before I truly dive in the world of writing, I should try to answers the whys behind it. Indeed, I have a personal reason to do so. Nonetheless, the following arguments should be relevant to most people.
Firstly, writing helps us explore ideas of interest. I strongly believe that we have a limited working memory capacity, at least I do, and the more we process data, the more this memory looses and mutates the information that it’s storing. Hence, the complexity of our thoughts is inherently limited. If it wasn’t the case, I would be able to do math without pencil and paper, which I am clearly not capable of. What happens, at least in my mind, is that If I delve deep into one of the details of a complex thought, I loose information about the large picture of the thought. On the other hand, if I focus on expanding on the big picture, I oversee details that could undermine the coherence of the thought. However, as I write I cannot ignore the details because incoherences in my arguments will stare and laugh at me from the page. Writing let’s you use forms lossless mediums as working memory for your ideas. It is limited by how well it can represent our thoughts, but nonetheless good enough to faithfully keep track of larger ideas that don’t fit all at once in working memory. Hence, if mutations and loss in information don’t occur, perhaps we will loose that random form of creativity, but we will be able to explore ideas deeper and further without leaving out or getting lost into detail.
Secondly, writing trains us to better communicate our ideas. I tend to think in multidimensional forms. When I want to communicate an idea, I first need to translate it into a linear string of words — a one dimensional object. This dimensionality reduction process is not obvious. Surely speaking to your interlocutor infernos adds complexity to the communication with tone and para-verbal communication. However, if you are not used to hear yourself when you think, then a translation process needs to happen that is at least as challenging as the reduction. You have to able to formulate a linear representation of a complex idea in a concise form that does not confuse your readers/listeners out of their minds.
Thirdly, writing and sharing helps us build confidence in our ideas. At least in my case, I have had very little self-esteem and confidence in my ideas lately. In part, it the belief that I am not a capable communicator and writing definitely helped me deal with it. I take time to find the optimal way to communicate my ideas and once a reread the passage I feel that I succeeded to convey an idea in a way that someone else can understand. I also believe that sharing what I write is beneficial do my general self-esteem problem. I tend to have a very high standard for everything I do. So high, that whatever I do is never good enough, which sometimes stops me from attempting some tasks that I don’t believe I can complete. This is a very dangerous downward spiral since the less you do the less you believe in yourself. When I share what I write, I get more comfortable with the work I do. It helps me believe in what I am capable of, since the more tasks you complete, no matter how small, the more tasks you believe you can complete.
I believe one should write to explore his or her ideas more deeply, and train how to communicate those ideas in a more effective manner. Also, in some cases, like mine, sharing what you write helps you get more comfortable with your ideas. This are the core reasons of why I think writing is valuable, and of why I am going to write and share what I write more regularly.
