If you’re not writing, you’re not thinking.

My lazy Google search didn’t immediately yield an attribution for this quote, so I gave up. I’m pretty sure I first heard it years ago on the Tim Ferriss podcast.

Similar quotes do have attributions:

If you’re thinking without writing, you only think you’re thinking.

—Leslie Lamport

(The fact that this comes from Leslie Lamport makes me like it more.)

If you can’t write clearly, you probably don’t think nearly as well as you think you do.

—Kurt Vonnegut

Regardless of who says it, the concept resonates with my experience.

Most of my writing doesn’t end up on this website. It exists as emails, messages, notes, or journal entries. In each case writing forces me to confront the ideas, intuitions, and feelings bouncing around in my head and impose order on them. Literally impose order, as in, arrange them in a sequence that has some logic to it.

It’s a healthy exercise. Once again, I mean that literally. Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the idea that thinking dispassionately about our feelings can help us gain control over them and become more mentally healthy. I don’t deal with an unusual amount of negative emotion, but I find that when I do a good journaling session helps me process it. I write down what’s bothering me and the potential causes. I evaluate their plausibilities and consider solutions. Writing about problems helps me think clearly about them, which in turn asserts my agency over them.

Writing’s usefulness translates to my work life as well. I spend a lot of my time in a problem-solving loop where (1) I’m confronted by some problem, (2) I have to think of possible solutions and (3) I try those solutions and see what happens. Writing aids each of these steps.

I can tell when I’ve gone several days without any thoughtful writing. My brain feels noticeably more sluggish. Thoughts, words, and ideas come to me much more slowly.

TBH the whole reason I’m writing this post is that I haven’t done enough writing recently, and the sluggish feeling was returning. This has been a good session… Thanks for humoring me!

\( \blacksquare\)