I’ve shared many times that I write on here mostly for my own benefit, even just a few days ago with my post on “What am I thinking?“. It’s like David C. Baker said in “The Business of Expertise” when he shared the value of writing a book:

The primary beneficiary of every book is the author because — for me, anyway — clarity comes in the articulation and not after it.

Making your thoughts suitable for publishing is one of the best ways to clear your thinking. It forces you to think through a bit deeper, perhaps find anecdotes or quotes to support your claim, and condense your thoughts into a tight bit of writing instead of rambling paragraphs.

David takes it further by adding:

If I didn’t write, I’d never know what I actually believe, and I hope reading this will inspire you to write for the same reason.

That’s a bit tongue in cheek, of course, but not too far off. Particularly in a case like his, where he devotes a full book to one subject, working through his various ideas to get them in an organized state for a book is a perfect way to “know what he actually believes”. If you want to clarify and understand what you really believe, writing can be a great way to do it.

When I first got back into daily blogging in late 2020, I shared a post about why I’m doing this. There are a handful of reasons, but the biggest was to help “sharpen my thoughts”. It’s worked well, and it should continue to help.

A quote I heard from Joan Didion (in the book “The Business of Expertise“) was a simple way to put it. Joan said:

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.

That’s this blog.

I’ll come across a great quote, or an insight, or a question, or a concern, and I’ll use this as a way to figure out what I think about it. It’s similar to writing in a journal, but I intentionally publish everything online as a way to force myself to think through it a bit further. I can get lazy at times and just jot down some quick notes, but if I’m going to publish for all to read I’ll want to at least make things clear. To get them clear on here, they need to be clear in my head first.

My brain still needs quite a lot of sharpening, so I don’t intend to stop doing this any time soon. If you have a blog of your own, please leave a comment and share with the rest of us so we can all gain a bit of wisdom from one another.

In David C. Baker’s excellent book “The Business of Expertise“, he encourages curiosity. In fact, he demands it. If you want to stay relevant in what you do, you need to stay curious.

I work hard to stay curious, and David gives an analogy that I found to be very accurate. I find that when I’m in places where it’s not as easy to jot down a note (when I’m driving or running, for example), sometimes the thoughts will pile up to the point where I just need to stop and write them down. David compares it to this:

You won’t be relevant for decades unless you are morbidly curious. In that pursuit, there are times when the urgency to write down a string of thoughts is as painful as waiting far too long to pee, and you’d better find a solution in a few minutes or someone’s going to be wet and warm.

While his analogy is kind of funny (and a bit gross), it makes total sense. I’ll feel that urgency to write something down grow and grow until I simply need to do something with it. While I don’t have a perfect answer for how to do that in every situation, here are a few things that help.

• If I’m driving with the family, I’ll ask my wife to email me. I’ll usually just say “email me experts don’t cold call” or some other out-of-context nonsense, but it’ll be enough to trigger my memory next time I’m at my computer and I see that email. She found it weird the first time I did that (and she probably still does), but it’s quick enough to do that so now she just does it and moves on.
• If I’m driving alone, I’ll have Google take the note for me through Android Auto (and you can do similar through Apple CarPlay). “Hey Google, take a note, experts don’t cold call”
• If I’m running, it’s a bit trickier. I could theoretically have Google take a note, but my inability to speak (while I can barely breathe) makes that tough. I’ll sometimes stop and type a quick note, or often I’ll do a quick memory trick with the “link system” to remember a few things (as taught to me by Joe Turner a few years ago). I’m not particularly good at it, but I can string a few together to buy me 20 minutes or so.

I’m often in a situation where I can jot a quick note in Google Keep or on a piece of paper or whatever, and that does the trick. As long as I process it into my system before it gets lost, all is good.

Today is something like 828 days in a row that I’ve blogged, and that doesn’t happen without a lot of intentional curiosity. My biggest concern is that I’ll run out of things to say, so having the urge to suddenly jot down some ideas is something that I’m always thankful to have to deal with.