I send myself links to materials I want to read and then the links stack in my inbox like the unread books in the living room. For every book I read, I add another two. Eventually, I sell some books to feel less guilty for not wasting their time. But that is another issue…
I read this blog titled The Busy Person’s Guide to Thinking by Shane Parrish. It discusses the value and quality of thinking; real thinking, longer thinking, focused thinking. Take time to read it!
He writes that “Writing is thinking made visible.” In this time of fast copy-paste of knowledge from one article (or AI-abbreviated version of it) to another, this is even more urgent. The information seems legit and does not even reach our minds, let alone settle in those grey cells for some time or even the rest of our life. A quick read and whoosh, there goes the thought.
Thinking is a fleeting thing, it is automatically. People practise clearing their minds to find peace; other people enjoy drowning in a massive waterfall of thoughts. So, thinking seems effortless, easy. The blog, however, refers to a lecture by William Deresiewicz, where the effort needed for writing (and thinking) is explained: “I need time to think about it, too, to make mistakes and recognize them, to make false starts and correct them, to outlast my impulses, to defeat my desire to declare the job done and move on to the next thing.”
An addition which I think is relevant here: make notes while reading. Put them in an editor, make handwritten notes, or write a short blog. Reading also takes time, to process, to think, to find the information that connects with other knowledge in your grey cells, to be able to find that what resonates with you. Solidify those thoughts, not only on paper or in pixels, but also in your mind.
And when it is on a blog, you can share your insights…