Why write?

[andrewducker]

Again from email with Broin. I was having an inspired day. No idea why, but I suspect that it's all Broin's fault

It's usually unformed in my skull. Or at best semiformed. When I write, it's more like I'm pulling it into shape as it comes out, so that the semi-formed fluid thoughts sloshing around inside become crystallised as they are written down. I can then examine them in detail and edit them to make more sense. There's only so far I can take a thought internally before I can't see both the beginning and the end at the same time, and it gets confused. Which is why I find that both writing it down and talking it over with other people is a great way to understand stuff.

Also, communication is a great way to find like-minded people. I don't know nearly enough people that think like me. If I can put
stuff in a public place, people like me may find it, and engage in conversation about it.

Oh, and because I'm very rarely convinced that I'm completely right about something. I'd like other people to chip away at my ideas and
help them become more than they could be if it was just me looking at them.

Comments

Ink Wittgenstein

[mcgroarty.livejournal.com]

Nobody thinks about anything for long if they can't iconify it. The mind doesn't retain abstracts well, or not when trying to deal with them in a logical fashion.

Usually the process of iconification means distilling a concept into the fewest words that represent it. And, I'll posit that you usually find this distillation by repeatedly trying to communicate a concept until you find what works, either by stumbling, or by repetition of key words and phrases.

The absolute best thing to do when you find that you're struggling to retain a thought is to begin to establish your vocabulary.

As an aside - and maybe it's just my empty stomach talking - I'm convinced that the value in most every business management book, software engineering "paradigm" or similar introduction of a "methodology" isn't so much the process as the vocabulary that comes with it, and the improvements in communication and the clarity of thinking that comes with that vocabulary.

I'm also convinced that if the above is true, most people are oblivious to it, which is why there will always be room for new silver bullet solutions, so long as everyone reads up on the same solution.

Some day somebody will figure this out and start writing small dictionaries followed by a hundred pages which are mere wandering discussions using the introduced vocabularies, and we can all stop enduring books with tiny samples of new vocabularies followed by irrelevant process changes.