Writing improves thinking, but only if you write well. You need to slow down and think. Writing encourages slowing down to think in depth, but that doesn’t mean I always do it. I find that I have a few modes of writing.
Unfocused, stream of consciousness writing
This generally happens when I don’t have a lot of time to write, or have so many ideas that I want to get them out of my head quickly - I’m often nervous that I’ll forget an amazing idea.
It’s not worth it. Many random monkey thoughts seem amazing in the moment, but I’ll either have the thought again later or realize later that the idea wasn’t as deep as I thought.
Regarding having the thought later: I find that my brain tends to surface similar insights given the same inputs. Good insights always feel unique in the moment, but reading through past notes, I often find that I’ve had the same “unique great insight” in the past in similar contexts. I’ll have similar impressions of certain software, etc.
This is important because it means you don’t have to work so hard to try to capture ideas “just in case you lose them forever”, which I find to be a fear that tends to be internalized through PKM marketing. They’ll come up again. In my notes, I have a habit that I learned from a talk by Nick Milo: I will often write in my notes that “this reminds me of X”. This prompt causes related ideas to surface. If I re-encounter the same mental context that the insight was first useful in, it’ll come up again.
The primary benefit of this mode of writing is memory extension. The act of writing the note seems to help recall: I often think of the note visually when I remember the content. These types of notes are also easy to quick capture, and can be searched easily.
Another benefit can be journaling: sometimes, journaling about emotions in a stream-of-consciousness can help with processing emotions or uncovering things about yourself that you didn’t noticed.
However, I don’t find this mode of writing to improve my thinking in a meaningful way. Also, most of these notes tend to be difficult for me to read later. The structure is all over the place, there’s a lot of text with little depth, etc.
Moderate intensity
I’d call the mode I’m writing in now moderate intensity. I’m not brain-dumping, but not trying to produce a masterpiece. I’m just thinking a good amount about what I’m writing. Is there a better way to explain my point? Does the structure make sense? It’s slower and more intentional. I’ll re-read what I’ve written while I’m writing it - something I don’t normally do in stream-of-consciousness writing.
Writing doesn’t seem to sharpen my thinking unless I write at least at this level.
Max intensity
Using all of my facilities to put together great writing. Juggling lots of sources and making connections. I remember feeling this during highly focused essay writing during university. I’d often go to Hayden Library to get this deep work done. I also had a phase where I’d turn off the lights in my room, sit in front of my CRT monitor with nothing on screen but my text editor, put lo-fi in my headphones, set a pomodoro timer, and work for hours.
I often have to use the pomodoro technique for this sort of work. It’s deep work and it’s focused. The pomodoro technique allows me to minimize distractions while allowing me to come back up for air at regular intervals.