The Purpose of Writing
I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!
– Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes)
A couple of things I’ve read recently have shifted the way I now think about writing for this blog. Most recently, I came across an article from Cory Doctorow on how he approaches writing. Along with some great tips from a seasoned pro, he makes the inarguable point that “there’s always 20 minutes to be found in a day, no matter what else is going on.” So I’ll be making a concerted effort to write more frequently — there’s just no excuse.
The second bit comes from a chapter of Peter Drucker’s Management, on taking advantage of your own learning style. He writes:
Alfred Sloan — the man who built General Motors into the world’s largest, and for sixty years the world’s most successful, manufacturing company — conducted most of his management business in small and lively meetings. As soon as a meeting was over, Sloan went to his office and spent several hours composing a letter to one of the meetings participants, in which he brought out the key questions discussed in the meeting, the issues the meeting raised, the decisions it reached, and the problems it uncovered but did not solve. When complimented on these letters, he is reported to have said, “If I do not sit down immediately after the meeting and think through what it actually was all about, and then put it down in writing, I will have forgotten it within twenty-four hours. That’s why I write these letters.”
It’s certainly interesting to think about blogging as a tool for personal development — solidifying knowledge and distilling ideas. Sure beats the alternative — that we’re all just talking to ourselves.
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