Week 1: Why Repeated Generator

When Jenny (my partner) and I are in different places physically, we stay in touch through writing. This was especially the case when we were living in different cities for a year. During that year our primary mode of communication was writing emails to each other. Writing emails creates a different intimacy than talking on the phone. Writing an email can be a more reflective process than a conversation. There is no back and forth; no ability to check if the other person is comprehending what you are trying to convey. The writing process forced me to think more about how to communicate.

One of the reasons I am drawn to writing is because of the direct impact it has on my thinking. Since writing is such a different medium / interaction than conversation it generates different creations. It leads to my actual thoughts being different then they would be in a conversation. It is more than taking what is in my head and putting it onto paper. With writing it is important to be precise and concise. It is much more obvious when the author does not have clarity of thought because the writing is difficult to follow. I personally find that the process of writing makes me a sharper thinker.

Another reason I am drawn to writing is due to how much I am influenced by everything I read. Since I graduated from college I have been trying to write more and I have often used what I was reading (books or papers) as a jumping off point. Reading other’s work allows me to learn from their experience. I can understand some of the depth of what they have learned without having to go through the same experience as them. Reading is powerful not only because I can learn from others but also because it makes me feel connected to the author. Reading someone’s writing is an opportunity to understand more about the author and what motivates them to create.

From my initial explorations with writing I have learned that writing is a dynamic iterative process of developing and refining ideas. The first step is taking an initial idea that is a simple spark and chronicling it. Moving the idea from my head and putting it onto the page. Once the idea is on the page it becomes easier to proceed with its development. I can start evaluating if it has some merit. What are the ways it needs to be pushed or expanded? By moving the idea outside of my head and onto the page I am able to interact with it differently.

Putting the idea outside of myself provides a distance that makes refinement easier. When I am further away from the idea, I associate it with myself less and can do a better job of objectively understanding it. I find that writing over the course of a few days also helps provide that necessary distance. When time has passed since I last looked at the piece I am able to view it with more clarity. That cognitive shift of dissociating the idea from myself can be harder to do without the process of writing. By forcing this shift, writing helps my mind follow a process for being a strong thinker.

In this way, writing is an iterative two stage process. The first stage is putting what is in my head onto the page. I aim not to worry about quality or how others might perceive it. Now that there is an artifact I can read, I can interact with the idea in a new way. As a reader I am able to be critical of the writing and identify what needs to improve. I am forced to put myself in the shoes of someone who is not as familiar with the idea because it is not their own creation. I then go back to the step of taking whats in my head and putting it on the page. Through this process I slowly improve the piece.

This iterative process makes writing a powerful tool to help reach clarity of thought. When I am thinking about an idea only in my head it is not usually clear where the weak points are. But once I start trying to make it accessible to others, that lack of clarity becomes evident. It is most often not a problem with the communication, but rather the communication is bad because there is not clarity in the thinking. Writing without clarity is immediately evident and so if I want to be a good writer it forces me to deepen my thinking.

Writing is so powerful not only because of the impact it has on my thinking, but also because it generates an artifact. The creation of this artifact leads to a few really fun properties

1. Writing can be shared or scaled to anyone. Once I have done the work it is then trivial to share it with others. There is the fixed cost of doing the writing, but there is essentially no extra cost for each additional person who reads it.
2. Writing generates a lasting chronicle. Each writing piece is a snap shot of thinking at a given point in time. That artifact can be returned to at a later date. It can be used to better understand the author, the time period and even patterns in the authors thinking.
3. Writing can create a genuine connection between people. While this connection is different than other forms of communication it is amazing that it can happen in the written medium. Really good writing connects its author to its readers in an emotional way. The best writing forms a powerful connection between the author and its readers.

Writing’s beneficial impact on my thinking and the benefits of having a written chronicle are what have motivate me to write. I have mostly used my own reading as a jumping off point for writing. I have occasionally written pieces that did not focus on another written piece but I always found it quite difficult. Writing these pieces would be a drawn out process. I would leave them in an incomplete state for a long period of time. But when I would complete those pieces, there were by far the most rewarding.

Writing these pieces involved a lot of time and mental strength. While writing is a good way to reach clarity, it can also be quite difficult. Currently, it takes both intense focus and determination for me to write. While I am writing I need to both think at the local scope of an individual sentence while still ensuring that each sentence and paragraph connects to my overall point. Writing can be demoralizing at times when I keep seeing the ways I do not quite have clarity. Good writing is something that takes me a lot of time.

Since I believe writing to be so beneficial, I want to find ways to not only improve my writing, but also the writing process. I want to decrease the mental energy it takes me to sit down and write. I want to be iterating on ideas over extended period of times, slowly fleshing them out. When I struggle to reach clarity, rather than being frustrated I want to recognize that is the exact the reason I am writing. Part of improving the process is changing my emotional relationship with writing and part of its developing practices that reduce as much friction as possible.

Repeated Generator is a project to help me deepen my relationship with writing, idea generation and sustainable processes. The best way to become a better writer is to write a lot. Writing a lot makes me a sharper thinker and leaves a lasting chronicle of what I am thinking about. Being forced to write something novel every week will necessitate that I develop a system that makes writing easier. This project is as much about developing a writing process as it is about doing the actual writing.

I am going to publish one writing piece every week on Sunday night. While I want each piece to be high quality and something I put time into, the main focus is about putting in time every week. I want to give myself the chance to try out different types of writing. Not every piece is going to be perfect the first time around. As long as I am constantly devoting time to this project each week and publishing something, it will be a huge success.

While I am excited to see where my mind goes and what I end up writing about, there are a few topics I already know I want to explore. These are:

• The writing process and how this project is going
• The future of certain technologies - I want to chronicle my opinions and see how they compare to what actually happens
• Believe formation at both the individual level and societal level. How public opinion has changed
• The science of doing science, the history of science and knowledge creation