Writing Is Thinking

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• Writing Makes Ideas Rigid

  Writing is like taking an idea and turning it into a rigid object. When ideas are fluid they become flexible and imprecise, able to fill into whatever context is needed—those “that’s not what I meant” moments and contradictions others allow us to have in conversations.

• Motivation for Taking Notes Comes from the Output

  What you intend to do with your notes is the thing that motivates you to take notes in the first place. The act of taking notes can be enough when getting started, there needs to be something more to keep going year after year.

• Getting Ready for AI

  The other day I noticed a tweet from Justin Duke which outlined a plan to get his company’s codebase ready for Devin—a programming focused generative AI product. While many are skeptical about AI taking over coding tasks, progress happening quickly and it seems likely that these tools will help software engineers, though maybe not replace the job outright).

• Thinking Better Thoughts

  I remember when I first started working at Stripe I felt like the dumbest person in the room. I was amazed at how smart everyone seemed and the writing…gosh, the writing! If I wanted to be like that too, something needed to change.

• Why All My Business Writing Is in Latex

  In my day-to-day business dealings, people are surprised when they receive LaTeX-generated documents for business proposals, memos, etc. from me.

• Using Tools for Thought as a Founder

  This is a reflection on using org-roam as a founder in the early stages of starting a company. It’s mostly a draft that I may or may not come back to.

• Principles for Living a Rich Digital Life

  I’ve been thinking more about how to live a rich digital life and what that means in a world of abundance. The following is a work-in-progress list of principles that are starting to form. (Epistemic status: low).

• Notes Clarify Understanding

  The act of writing notes of self contained ideas and facts leads to deeper understanding. The feeling of not understand something you write is unpleasant and motivates taking a closer look. If writing is thinking, then note taking is encoding.

• How to Start and Run a Remote-First Startup

  This guide is for founders starting a fully remote company in the United States.

• How to Write a Note

  Here’s how to write permanent notes based on How to Take Smart Notes.

• Typing Fast Is Thinking With Your Hands

  Knowledge work is often limited by time spent thinking versus doing, but typing fast helps you think faster. Ideas don’t usually come out clearly when they go from our brain to paper—they require some iteration and correction. That means some amount of exploration is required and the act of typing can help you think with your hands.

• Writing Makes You Live Curiously

  Questions naturally arise when writing. Since writing is thinking, when we turn over an idea in our head, we can’t help spotting things we don’t understand or finding a topic we want to learn more about.

• SCQA

  SCQA stands for the *s*ituation, *c*omplication, *q*uestion, and *a*nswer. It’s a way of writing an introduction in a way that clearly communicates the key question a piece of writing will answer.

• Temporary Intellectual Home

  Writing an essay is like living in a temporary intellectual home for awhile. It means you are spending time with the subject, getting to know it’s details, nuance, and depth. It’s the opposite of being an intellectual tourist with a passing understanding.