Annotations (4)
“If you need to solve a complicated, ill-defined problem, it will almost always help to write about it. Which in turn means that someone who's not good at writing will almost always be at a disadvantage in solving such problems. You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well.”— Paul Graham
Philosophy & Reasoning · Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior
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Reading feeds writing feeds thinking: causal chain
“Writing is not just a way to convey ideas, but also a way to have them. A good writer doesn't just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing. And there is, as far as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery.”— Paul Graham
Philosophy & Reasoning · Creativity & Innovation · Psychology & Behavior
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Writing generates thoughts, not just records them
“Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them. But even after doing this, you'll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write. There is a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing.”— Paul Graham
Philosophy & Reasoning · Psychology & Behavior
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Writing unlocks thoughts conversation cannot access
“You have to be good at reading, and read good things. People who just want information may find other ways to get it. But people who want to have ideas can't afford to. By good at reading I don't mean good at the mechanics of reading. You don't have to be good at extracting words from the page so much as extracting meaning from the words.”— Paul Graham
Philosophy & Reasoning · Psychology & Behavior
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Quality reading extracts meaning, not just words
Frameworks (1)
The Read-Write-Think Chain
Developing Clear Thinking Through the Reading-Writing Feedback Loop
A three-stage framework for developing clarity on complex, ill-defined problems. Reading quality material provides raw inputs and models of good thinking. Writing about the problem forces articulation and reveals gaps in understanding, generating new insights that pure thinking cannot produce. The iterative cycle of reading more, writing more, and refining thoughts compounds into progressively clearer thinking. The chain is unidirectional: you cannot write well without reading well, and you cannot think clearly about complex problems without writing well.
Components
- Read Good Material Deeply
- Write to Think, Not Just to Record
- Iterate the Cycle
Prerequisites
- Access to high-quality reading material in the problem domain
- Dedicated time blocks for uninterrupted writing
- Willingness to write before thoughts feel fully formed
Success Indicators
- Discovering insights during writing that weren't present before
- Progressively clearer articulation of the problem across drafts
- Ability to explain complex ideas to others with increasing precision
Failure Modes
- Treating writing as pure transcription defeats the discovery mechanism
- Reading low-quality material models poor thinking patterns
- Stopping after a single cycle when clarity requires iteration
Mental Models (2)
Writing as Thinking
Decision MakingWriting is not merely a tool for recording pre-formed thoughts, but a unique method for generating new ideas.
In Practice: Graham's essay on the irreplaceable role of reading and writing
Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001
Read-Write-Think Feedback Loop
Systems ThinkingA self-reinforcing cycle where reading improves writing ability, writing ability
In Practice: Graham's articulation of the causal chain connecting reading quality to thinking
Demonstrated by Leg-pg-001
Synthesis
Synthesis
Migrated from Scholia