What is the benefit of writing something when I can give a few cues to Chatgpt, and it will deliver something better? A friend asked me recently.
I could immediately relate to him the benefit I experience when I write using a pencil on paper.
Writing helps me clarify my thinking. It is through writing that I realize whether or not I truly understand what I am thinking about or talking about. And more importantly, it is the process by which I figure it out. So, paradoxically, writing helps me think better.
Writing also forces me to test my thinking, particularly when I have to capture ideas. When I write about an idea on paper, I can read it or ask someone to read what I have written to validate and test my thinking.
There is a beautiful blog penned by the famed computer scientist, entrepreneur, and author Paul Graham titled The Need To Read, where he discusses the importance of reading and how writing can help enhance our thinking process.
In the essay, Paul Graham says: “A good writer doesn’t just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing. And there is, as far as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery. Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them. But even after doing this, you’ll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write. There is a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.”
Need I say(or write) more? Writing is the pathway to clarifying thoughts, testing ideas, and discovering insights.