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Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#41

Post by darkerside »

mcmoor wrote: post #37
zeroCalories wrote: post #12

I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is…

I don't like it because I feel my vague ideas "disappear" when becoming concrete. It feels like trying to project a multidimensional creature into 2D; you inevitably lose some of it. In contrast, in my brain I can rotate or pinch the idea anyway I like and even turn it into further ideas.

That's exactly the point. You can do that in your own head, but you can't communicate that to other people. For every amazing thing you've ever seen in a movie screen, imagine how much MORE amazing it was in someone's head before that. But you can't capture that in full.

And, much like the scientific method can take something that "everyone knows", and turn it into the basis for a branch of science, the process of getting this down in paper forces you to document all the nuances in your head, making that final idea even richer and fully consistent.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#42

Post by anon-3988 »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

> Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, how to focus your mind, posture etc. That comes later, very naturally, after you get curious about improvements.

Chilling != meditation. Like I get that chilling is helpful for you but words have meaning and that is not meditation.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#43

Post by p1mrx »

barapa wrote: post #40
NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Which stock A4 should I use?

No one can be told which stock to use. Buy reams from at least 3 different manufacturers, take a random sample from each, and have a neutral third party number and randomize the specimens. Sharpen your pencil and write one full page, noting how the graphite glides against the wood fibers. Leave a margin of at least 3 centimeters, and if you must erase, use only natural rubber.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#44

Post by tambourine_man »

javawizard wrote: post #16

I have a pretty strong natural filter. Years of therapy and three different therapists have yet to get me to a place where I can truly open up, even when writing on a page I know no-one else will see. Two days ago I did weed for the first time. I accidentally took a much larger hit than I meant to. For the first 15 minutes I had a complete out-of-body experience; nothing seemed real, I felt like I was floating throug…

I don’t have many favorite comments on hacker news, especially not if this kind, but this one goes on that list. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#45

Post by qwerasdf5 »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Try taking an edible, sit down in a quiet room in front of your text editor of choice, and write down ideas.

The next day, look at the stuff you wrote and pick out the good stuff.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#46

Post by satvikpendem »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

There was an app or site I remember using that, every time you typed a sentence, it disappeared so that you only focused on the sentence in front of you. After you're done, you could export the entire document. I wonder if we could add some LLM features to that too.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#47

Post by electrondood »

numtel wrote: post #34
NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Before I graduated from college, my aunt gave me the book, The Artist's Way, which prescribes this basic task as you've described as the foundational exercise for creativity. The suggestion given was 3 pages a day no matter what.

Bingo. The Morning Pages technique is also the cheapest therapy on the planet. The effect, for me anyways, is virtually identical to the catharsis I feel from a $200 therapy session.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#48

Post by SamPatt »

mcmoor wrote: post #37
zeroCalories wrote: post #12

I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is…

I don't like it because I feel my vague ideas "disappear" when becoming concrete. It feels like trying to project a multidimensional creature into 2D; you inevitably lose some of it. In contrast, in my brain I can rotate or pinch the idea anyway I like and even turn it into further ideas.

I enjoy writing but I also feel this strongly. For me it feels like writing is forcing me to carry on one particular train of thought much longer, and in a more focused way, than I do in my head.

Thoughts sometimes have a parallel aspect to them, and since writing cannot capture this, it's necessarily a pale imitation. But that's what makes it challenging, and rewarding if I'm actually able to get something across.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#49

Post by SamPatt »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #25
zeroCalories wrote: post #12

I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is…

To add, it helps to have some record of inner thoughts to look back and reflect with greater fidelity than memory. Done enough, one can start to make connections at a greater rate than if one was to try to keep it all in one's head. I've had several experiences in therapy where I had the spontaneous thought, "I've written about this before!" I was able to go back and thread through all previous reflections in a way t…

On a similar note - I often have the sense that I'm a very different person today than I was in the past.

Reading old writing of mine is fascinating, because it will sometimes confirm this - I often have very different beliefs - but it also shows how similarly my thought processes were in the past.

I do recommend it, with the caveat that if you journaled during dark times, don't reread those parts if you're struggling again. Can be contagious.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#50

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

zeroCalories wrote: post #12

I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is…

They say you don't truly understand something until you're forced to explain it to someone else. Writing your ideas down is essentially “rubber duck debugging” applied to your thoughts: you can get clarity without needing a human third party.
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