Why I am starting this blog
It made me wonder, why I start with why. Is it through pure curiosity, does it help me justify the time committed, or is there more to it? Asking why comes very natural to me, usually out of plain curiosity, a certain need to understand and complete the mental picture. This time there was more to it, I was trying to figure out how to start this journey of a blog. Similar to when defining any strategy: to answer how you’re going to do something, you first need to know why you’re doing it. The why defines the scope, it gives you guidance, motivation, and clarity.
In this case, my why is easy, I feel a need to structure my thoughts. The hypothesis is that through this blog I can better do that.
Why do I want to write a blog?
To help me process my thoughts
“If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.”
― Leslie Lamport
I believe it can be really useful to write out my thoughts. I’ve noticed that whenever I go through the process of writing them down, I spend a lot of time reflecting on them. Not just reflecting in the way you do when you are, you know, reflecting. It’s more a combination of structuring, refining, and reflecting. I don’t know whether the first two are a prerequisite of proper reflection, but it does feel like there’s a difference.
The first step, processing my thoughts, is providing structure. When I started this post, I started with the first line of the intro. Then wrote and rewrote these three main points as headers, and continued to slowly build them out. Not one by one, but in parallel. By going through this process of creating an outline, I create a structure. It visually shows me how my thoughts are built up, and in turn allows me to identify the connections between the different points.
To improve my ability to write out and communicate my thoughts
Once you have processed your thoughts and structured them, you end up with an outline. Usually this outline only makes sense to yourself. Every point, or node, on the network represents a thought. These thoughts can range from complex images to simple bridges, for me they can tell the complete story. Well, they can now.
This structured brain dump introduces two problems.
First, to anyone else it’s a list cryptic words. It makes no sense whatsoever. That’s also quite normal, for you these words aren’t words, they’re ankers to your thoughts. To others they’re just words, random words.
Second, the now part. I can’t remember just how often I wrote down some words, being fully convinced that they’re perfectly clear, and coming back to them a couple days or weeks later and having no clue what they’re all about.
That’s what the second step is all about, writing out my ideas in a way that they make sense in the future. As this is my first post I don’t have a perfect format this yet, but my first thoughts are as followed; clear structure, simple yet elaborate description.
Writing out your ideas also helps refining them. When you’re writing them out, you’re basically trying to explain them, explain what they mean, why they belong together, and what the connection is between them. When you’re creating that explanation, you find the rough edges that you need to work through. Working through the details refines them.
To create my own library of thoughts
How often are you pondering something, you then realise, you’ve already spent hours thinking about. The idea to create a library of my refined thoughts, a place that I can revisit and reflect on later, really appeals to me. Not just to refresh on things I’ve worked on, but to challenge conclusions I’ve made in the past.
I recently took a training called Building a Second Brain where this step of creating a final product is called Expression. The idea is that when you go through your ideas with the creation of a final product mind, you do a better job organizing them. Just as the best way to learn something is to explain it to somebody else.
Having said all of that, I think it’s important to remember that every idea is just a theory that gets tested by the world around you.
So, why is my first blog about why I’m writing a blog? It’ll give me a structure going forward, I’ve always found myself lost on a blank page (or a blank birthday card). For me to understand how I process my thoughts, helps me go through the exercise in the future.
All these reasons have to do with my thoughts. As a heavy introvert who gets his energy from thinking about strategy, I spend a lot of time within my thoughts. However, just as with anything, they need to exist in balance. A balance between thought and action, too much of either and you end up disoriented; paralysed in analysis or blind in a hamster wheel. I hope writing will help me find this balance.