I have been thinking a lot lately about this blog. I have written over 310 posts here, but my pace has slowed significantly as we have gone through seasons like moving, building a house, and some larger projects at The Sky Floor. A surprising thing has happened, though, as I sit on this content: I need to read it as much as I wanted other people to read it! Sometimes a topic comes up, and I realize, “I have written about that before!” So into the archives I go, and so often when I read the words, I think, “That is a good point I completely forgot about!”
The nature of a human memory and thinking is just that way sometimes. We need reminders of how we have thought about things in the past. The written word is so powerful because it locks an idea in a moment, regardless of the ability of even its creator to recall the gist of it. Writing is like a photograph, capturing your thinking in a moment in time. One day, you might go back through the stack of photos and remember that favorite t-shirt you didn’t recognize you owned until now. Writing can have the same effect on your ideas!
Benefits of Writing
Writing can help codify complex ideas into a repeatable framework or pitch you can give to a client or friend. But past writing can also be just the medicine you need to cure the current problems that ail you. In other words, you might need your own thoughts later on to preach to the choir of yourself. It can be too easy to forget our philosophies and guiding principles. We will likely fall back into older patterns or into the way everyone else does things.
Now, this doesn’t mean I agree with everything I re-read. My ideas change and morph, just as everyone else’s do. But
Writing in an AI World
One thing: skip the AI agents when writing, at least at first. Studies are coming out showing that AI use can reduce cognitive function. I am not advocating for no AI, but using it as an editor, not a creator. Use it to rearrange, poke holes, check grammar, and create summaries or extra content. But keeping the original ideas your own as you form them will not only capture your unique perspective (instead of the median on human-knowledge-based training datasets), but it can also fight AI brainrot!
I use Grammarly when I write original content. I use the suggestions, tweak my wording and sentence structure, but avoid complete AI output. I want to sharpen my thinking and turn my ideas into something I can read later and recognize as my own. Writing can do that, as long as you actually do the work of pouring your ideas on paper, struggling through the best words to convey your ideas.
So this is my call to action: try writing your ideas down – turn them into something packaged and concise. You may end up skipping that next business or parenting book and go back to read what you said before!
Takeaway:
Writing your ideas down is a great way to clarify your thinking and freeze it in time for later use. As a little side bonus, it also combats AI atrophy.
