Become A Better Thinker

Every so often, I keep returning to this theme–writing makes one a better thinker. Whenever I find myself struggling with blurry thoughts like “Should I do this or that?”, “How do I handle this situation?” or “I’m stressed—what should I do?” I turn to my daily journal and start writing.

Writing forces me to slow down and engage with my thoughts. When I take the time to sit with them, explore them, and put them into words, I begin to see them more clearly.

In his great essay “Need to read,” Paul Graham puts it so nicely.

“A good writer doesn’t just think and then write down what he thought, like a transcript. A good writer almost always discovers something new in the process of writing.”

When thoughts remain in our heads, they are abstract and untested. But when we put them into words, we are forced to confront them. Some hold up. Some fall apart. Either way, writing reveals perspectives we didn’t know existed.

In this age of ChatGPT, writing might seem like a futile exercise. Why spend time writing when AI can do it for you? ChatGPT can generate text, but it cannot think for you. You still have to articulate your own thoughts–AI can only clean them up or replay them in a different way.

I wish everyone would invest 30 minutes each day in writing out their thoughts. Those who can do this will naturally become better thinkers.