Things Of Note #05

Writing and Thinking

Jun 06, 2020

Hey Everyone,

I have been trying to think more critically about any and all arguments I come across, on a range of topics. (I'll leave out the specifics for now).

And it turns out: my thinking is ineffective. I have a tendency to accept things at face value, especially from authority figures I admire. And perhaps worse, I shy away from doing my own critical thinking.

Against this backdrop, one of the things I am now leaning more heavily on is using writing as a thinking tool.

We tend to think of writing as a tool to present our thoughts and ideas. But, it's much more effective to also use it as a tool to build them. Because writing tends to force clarity and it externalizes our muddled thoughts into a form that's more conducive to examination.

Writing is a tool for thinking!

"I think it's far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them."

~ From this brief essay by Paul Graham on Writing, Briefly.

// Readings

How To Take Smart Notes: 10 Principles to Revolutionize Your Note-Taking and Writing

Tiago Forte | 32 mins

I loved the principles covered in this post, extracted from the book "How To Take Smart Notes". Some of them provided new perspectives and will definitely influence my workflow going forward. The biggest new ideas for me were:
- Organize notes by the context you would want to find them in (or use them in) rather than by where you found them or which topic they might belong to.
- Standardization enables creativity
- Nobody ever starts from scratch. Everything is a remix. (See below :)
Summary: If we build up a workflow to create smart and interconnected notes, and consider writing as our most valued output, over time, they will make it easier for us to produce extraordinary work.

Writing is Thinking: Learning to Write with Confidence

Steph Smith | 18 mins

In this post, Steph gives a tour of her writing process. I love how it gives a concrete instantiation of some of the principles above.

“Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard."
- David McCullough

Lying to survive: Dalits in urban life

Gauri Nepali | 7 mins

One of the things I have been trying to educate myself about is the oppressive Caste System of our society. Specifically, its history and current form. I haven't made much headway apart from learning that Ambedkar is necessary reading on the topic. At least as a start. That Gandhi was somewhat of a casteist early on (though this seems to be a very contentious issue). That the term "Dalit" was created to give a tag to the movement for the marginalized communities. It was needed in order to not have the movement be tagged with pejoratives forced upon them.
This particular article highlights how Dalits have to lie in order to blend into the urban life. And how that lie stays with them, haunting them throughout their lives. Also, how in some "progressive" circles, people are proud of their children learning to "not discriminate the lower castes", failing to realize that by using the term "upper" and "lower" castes, they are still reinforcing the oppressive hierarchy.

// Videos

Everything is a Remix

Kirby Ferguson | 37 mins

Led Zeppelin, Star Wars, the Macintosh, the Gutenberg printing press...
"Everything is a remix because creativity itself carries the basic acts involved in remixing: copy, transform, and combine. "
This was a fascinating watch. Had some food-for-thoughts. For instance, learning involves copying. When learning the fundamentals, we must start out by copying. Also some history lesson: how the laws around Copyright and Patents were created for the greater good but have now lost touch with that original purpose.
Anyway, I guess it's befitting that I pulled this from some other person's (Visakan's) bookmarks.

// Tech

Fast Software, the Best Software

Craig Mod | 11 mins

In this interesting essay, Craig goes over the virtues of fast software and how fast often means good software.

"Ultimately, to be fast is to be light. And to be light is to lessen the burden on someone or some task. This is the ultimate goal: For our pocket supercomputers to lessen burdens, not increase them. For our mega-powered laptops to enable a kind of fluency — not battle, or struggle — of creation."