5 Reasons Why I Write
It’s all about the leverage.
Hello again! Two articles in three days, aren’t you lucky 😏
Anyway, here are the five reasons why I write:
1) Clarity
It is relatively simple to wax lyrical about a topic in a conversation but reducing that topic to the written word is complex and requires practice. Try it, pick a topic that interests you and try to write 1000 words on it. You’ll notice writer’s block, scurrying for sources and other deflections that distract you from the writing itself. For me, writing is about seeking clarity on a particular topic. Conversations come and go but writing lives forever (primarily if published online).
2) Expressing Ideas
Our minds are filled with thousands of thoughts and ideas every single day. These are often fleeting and quickly forgotten about once another stimulation comes in the frame. But many of these ideas could be very useful to us, especially those that may give you a fuller life. I carry a notebook everywhere to write down the ideas that come to me. The brain is excellent at creating thoughts but terrible at retaining them. Writing a review or idea down allows you to use that idea in a meaningful way. This post is the consequence of an idea I had written down - as are all my posts generally.
3) Educate My Audience
I do not consider myself an expert on any topic, nor an educator in any sense. However, the feedback from the world shows that selected people value what I do. Whether it comes from the comments on my YouTube videos, the responses to my tweets or comments under this post, some people have a keen interest in the work that I produce. Writing is a great medium to transfer my knowledge or thoughts about the world to my audience with (hopefully) utmost clarity.
4) Become A Better Writer
It is fair to have dreams and aspirations but merely holding onto them is the same as doing nothing. As I said in point 2 above, ideas are pointless if you don’t action them. I have always wanted to write better but procrastinated by reading books on how to write. The answer to wanting to be better at something is to do it purposefully as often as possible. Writing an article or a blog post is training you to be a better writer anyway. I think of this written post as a drill in the course of becoming a better writer. So there will be a few typos, mistakes and issues with the flow but, with practice, these wither away.
5) Leverage
One of my favourite thinkers is Naval Ravikant, a tech billionaire. He often remarks that we live in a world of infinite leverage. Leverage is simply a word for tools that amplify your efforts.
Here is what he says about podcasts:
“This podcast is a form of leverage. Long ago, I would have had to sit in a lecture hall and lecture each of you personally. I would have maybe reached a few hundred people, and that would have been that. Then…30 years ago, I would have to be lucky to get on TV, which is somebody else's leverage… Today, thanks to the Internet, I can buy a cheap microphone, hook it up to a laptop or an iPad, and there you are all listening.”
While my writing will not reach millions of people yet, this blog is also a source of leverage. It sends signals to hundreds, thousands or millions of people around the world who might be interested in what I have to say. Those people may read this and find something valuable in it; they might emulate my ideas in ways I cannot imagine. Or, they might reach out and seek my help for a project. They become fans and may want to consume whatever products I may wish to develop and sell at a later stage. This is the world of infinite leverage - putting out ideas, thoughts, services to the world and see what comes back your way.
In essence, writing is an attempt to send articulated ideas into the world and leveraging them for greater output in the future.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk 😄