“Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know—and what we don’t know—about whatever we’re trying to learn.”
― William Knowlton Zinsser
“If the book is true, it will find an audience that is meant to read it.”
— Wally Lamb
This is my first post. I’ve put off writing publicly for a long time. I’ve put off writing much at all, really. Part of the reason is because I thought it would take too much time and be a distraction from more value-adding tasks.
But…I’m also in pursuit of a life well-lived.
Part of the pursuit of a life well-lived is experiencing that life, and our experience is deepened and made more rich by contemplating and articulating it.
In recent years, I started using Evernote to collect and keep track of my thoughts on stuff: project notes, deal memos, random middle-of-the-night anxiety brain dump sessions, etc. As I’ve done more writing, I’ve realized the process itself helps me grow, in ways noted in the quotes above and in ways that aren’t quantifiable, but can be summed up thusly:
I’m writing to learn.
As I’ve more regularly worked to hone my thoughts, a curious thing has happened.
What I think has gotten clearer.
As my thinking has gotten clearer, my ability to communicate has improved. As my ability to communicate has improved, I’ve been of more value to those around me.
Recently it’s been brought to my attention that others may find some value in hearing what I think (if only for the humor of it). Ergo, here we are.
I’ll spend my time here writing about things I:
- find interesting
- feel may be valuable
- feel strongly about
- thought seemed a good idea at the time
Let’s see where this goes.
