A smart person once told me that writing something down helps you reflect and analyze your thoughts. As someone who likes thinking a lot, I thought that was a great idea. Several months later, here I am starting a blog.
I'll write about many of my thoughts concerning interesting concepts that contribute to my understanding of the world. I really enjoy thinking, but there isn't a place where I can save my notes and continuously come back to them, so hopefully, this artificial social stimulus will motivate me to write more. I'll try to cite external ideas when possible, but most of the time my ideas are developed internally in order to maintain originality.
I do hope there are people out there who find these concepts as fascinating as I do and become regular readers, although I'll mainly use the blog as a personal collection of ideas. You can read more about the nature of this blog here.
I won't write on a set schedule at least in the beginning. However, I am committing to keeping this blog active for a long time.
Since I'm a social entrepreneur going to an entrepreneurship college, expect a lot of articles concerning startups and tech, but also education, nonprofits, and leadership. However, since the modern startup world is possibly the most isolated social bubble in the modern world, I actively search for transferable patterns between entrepreneurship and other aspects of life. As of today, I have played competitive chess for over a decade, actively cook at home, and practice Wing Chun martial arts in my spare time. Should make for a spicy combination.
To provide a taster of how I write, the rest of this article will explore what it means to write things down, especially in a blog.
Writing: What is it Really? ✍️
Writing things down helps us reflect and analyze ideas because the nature of writing forces the writer to present their ideas in a digestible manner for the reader, whether that person be themselves or others. In order to for the reader to understand those concepts, the writer must present ideas with logical flow and enough detail to reflect an accurate understanding that reflects the writer's own nuanced thoughts.
As I'm writing, I'm realizing the extent of the disorganization of my thoughts. Even though I've planned to write a blog for months, it still takes significant effort to compile the jumbled mess in my brain. By doing so, I achieve clarity in my thinking process regarding this topic, similar to formulating a sauce recipe with explanations of the purpose of each step instead of simply mashing the ingredients together and stir-frying them. By the end of writing this article, I can already tell that I will possess unwavering confidence entering any debate about the nature of writing.
Why High School Writing Sucks 🎒
Every type of writing comes in some form of analyzing ideas, each serving different purposes.
In school, the essays we write are intended to help us present logical arguments and develop core communication and thinking skills. Personal journalling is intended to help us reflect on the previous day, repeat affirmations, and improve self-awareness. Blogging is intended to explore anything that an individual wants to explore.
While writing by itself isn't boring, high school essays often alienate students away from recreational writing by forcing students to write about topics they aren't curious about (obviously I'm generalizing, there are teachers who induce interest in their students and make you want to do their assignments).
Normal Writing:
Curiosity → willingly think and analyze ideas due to appreciation of concepts → a deep understanding → writing simply consists of converting that understanding in written form
High School Writing:
No curiosity → forced to think about uninteresting ideas to fulfill word limit → a basic understanding → students start writing bullshit by using big words to explain basic concepts (admit it, you've done this at least once)
Of course, academic writing is completely different from high school writing. Academic writing requires detail and analysis from every possible angle in order to cover all the information needed. While there are implied messages in other forms of writing, academic writing is taken almost exclusively explicitly and every single sentence contains valuable information.
In business and marketing, you are always fighting for the reader's attention so you must be concise. I spend a lot more time trying to keep things short and sweet even in internal documents since concise sentences are usually the most memorable. In contrast, writing a blog or journalling is remarkably intuitive with a touch of freedom. The only effort consists of organizing thoughts into a logical narrative (I might regret saying this as I write more blogs).
While every form of writing helps the writer develop and analyze ideas, academic writing explores it until the well is dry, business writing presents it in a hyper-digestible manner, and casual writing allows for simply creativity. High school writing is mostly poorly designed.
I hope this analysis is satisfying for a first blog post. I look forward to writing more!
One-line Summary
I'm starting a blog because I wish to explore my ideas in a more permanent yet creative and profound manner.
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