I recently finished a major work project and wrote a review of the project to be shared with my colleagues. The main questions I wanted to answer were a) Was this worth doing? b) How could it be done better next time.
Towards the end of writing the review I noticed that despite having written a bunch of words on these questions, I felt like I hadn’t actually answered them. It felt like I was writing a review of the project, as distinct from actually reviewing the project. I started a fresh page, aiming to answer the questions, and ended up having quite different takes on these questions than when writing with the intention to communicate.
In general, I think that writing with the intention to communicate my thoughts makes the quality of my thinking worse than if I’m writing with the intention to think. The best strategy I have for dealing with this at the moment is separate out the two processes, first work out my thoughts on a given question, then edit these thoughts to communicate them to others (I find using separate documents a useful way of separating out the processes).
Sometimes the opposite feels true. For example, if I’m trying to answer a question or solve a problem and I’m struggling, writing a message to someone asking them for help solving the problem can lead to me finding a solution myself.
Thinking and Communicating as Separate Processes
I recently finished a major work project and wrote a review of the project to be shared with my colleagues. The main questions I wanted to answer were a) Was this worth doing? b) How could it be done better next time.
Towards the end of writing the review I noticed that despite having written a bunch of words on these questions, I felt like I hadn’t actually answered them. It felt like I was writing a review of the project, as distinct from actually reviewing the project. I started a fresh page, aiming to answer the questions, and ended up having quite different takes on these questions than when writing with the intention to communicate.
In general, I think that writing with the intention to communicate my thoughts makes the quality of my thinking worse than if I’m writing with the intention to think. The best strategy I have for dealing with this at the moment is separate out the two processes, first work out my thoughts on a given question, then edit these thoughts to communicate them to others (I find using separate documents a useful way of separating out the processes).
Sometimes the opposite feels true. For example, if I’m trying to answer a question or solve a problem and I’m struggling, writing a message to someone asking them for help solving the problem can lead to me finding a solution myself.