Writing as Thinking
Forty-one days of daily blogging. Here’s what I’ve discovered: I don’t write to share ideas. I write to find them.
The Surprise
When I started daily blogging in January, I thought the challenge was producing content. Finding enough to say.
The actual challenge was different. There’s always something to say. The hard part is thinking clearly enough to say it.
How Writing Changes Thinking
Vague ideas become concrete. “I think AI security is important” becomes a specific list of practices and code examples. The vagueness can’t survive the writing process.
Contradictions surface. I’ve written myself into corners where my stated beliefs contradicted each other. That’s valuable. I’d rather find contradictions in a blog post than in a production system.
New connections form. Writing about parenting made me think about AI differently. Writing about deployment made me think about writing differently. Ideas cross-pollinate on the page.
The Process
My writing process is simple:
- Notice something during the day
- Ask: “Why is this interesting?”
- Write the answer
- Delete half of it
- Publish
Step 4 is where the real thinking happens. Cutting forces clarity.
What I’ve Learned About My Own Thinking
I think in analogies. Almost every post connects two different domains. This is how my brain works. I didn’t know this before writing daily.
I have strong opinions loosely held. Writing forces me to examine my opinions. Some survive. Some don’t. That’s the point.
I process emotions through ideas. My “personal” posts are really about processing experiences through frameworks. The parenting posts aren’t just about parenting—they’re about presence, attention, and intention.
The Audience Doesn’t Matter (Yet)
My blog gets modest traffic. That’s fine.
I’m not writing for an audience. I’m writing for clarity. If others find it useful, that’s a bonus.
The primary reader is future me. Every post is a snapshot of what I was thinking and why.
The Habit
Forty-one days in, it’s a habit now. Missing a day feels wrong, like skipping brushing my teeth.
Some days the post is short. Some days it’s technical and long. The consistency matters more than any individual post.
Advice for Engineers Who Don’t Write
Start with what you learned today. Every day teaches something. Write it down.
Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for published.
Write for yourself first. If you write to impress, you’ll produce bullshit. If you write to understand, you’ll produce value.
The first ten posts will be hard. The next ten will be easier. After thirty, it flows.
The Bottom Line
Writing is the cheapest, most effective thinking tool I’ve found.
No subscription. No framework. No setup. Just you and your thoughts.
If you’re an engineer who doesn’t write, you’re missing your most powerful debugging tool—for your own mind.
Start writing. Start today.