Writing Is Thinking (2014)
alistapart.com
alistapart.com
Without writing, you are going to get lost in your thoughts and eventually they will all crumbled down around you when you push too far.
Writing is such a great invention - because it lets you transfer knowledge across time and between people.
However, I find less people appreciate that, without writing, a lot of the complex ideas people have worked through would not be possible. Your brain just can’t hold it all in there.
The paper becomes an extension of you and your brain.
I fear that it will have to get really bad before everybody agrees on this, and it might even be the case that people like me who worry about free software are wrong about our fears and everything will be fine... ultimately time will tell.
What exactly are you worried about ?
I'm of mixed feelings about the situation, but tend to agree.
The biggest sign of hope that I see is that many programs use either open or simple enough standards that non-authorized/non-supported software can open it. However, this is always subject to change.
The companies that offered those services have the right to shut it down. It's not really a public utility that's funded by the people using it or tax payers or anything like that.
It's up to each individual to archive what is important for them. But a lot of what we publish online is across different devices and on different platforms. It's not as easy to manage all that data as it could be.
I do buy Kindle books now.
What is funny is that there are Kindle books on Amazon that you cannot read on your eInk Kindle!
For example, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forcing-London-Mathematical-Society... has as its format "Print Replica", which I like for math books as they are basically just high-quality PDFs. But you cannot download it to a Kindle Oasis, for example! Funnily, after you remove the DRM, it just becomes a PDF, and you CAN download it to the Kindle Oasis.
That's just ridiculous.
Because when the medium over which we write (the "paper") becomes a digital computer-based system it becomes possible for some actor other than myself to gain control over this extended portion of my self and my mind.
And while this has always been possible to lose control over one's writing (other actors may steal and/or modify them, etc..) with digital computer it becomes possible to remotely do this in better and more efficient ways (...etc)
"Thinking on Paper shows how writer's block as well as many other writing problems are engendered by the tendency, supported by traditional approaches, to separate thinking from writing. Drawing on the developing field of symbol theory, V.A. Howard and J.H. Barton explain why this separation is unsound and demonstrate how to improve dramatically our ability to generate and express ideas."
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Paper-V-Howard/dp/0688077587
This lady is writing about writing. This is recursive. Humanity has the ability to think conceptually and recursively about things - this is thinking about thinking. This act opens the world to creativity in a way that is not possible for other creatures.
Eg we can think about a table as a concept - it brings to mind something like "Four legs, a flat solid top". As a concept though, we can take those bits out it and ask things like 'What would a table be with no legs?' or 'what would a table be without a solid top'.
This is how easy it is for us to play with concepts - thinking about thinking. And then write about it.
(It's also worth noting that the article is built on personality-specific advice, and not everyone is wired or able to think via writing. I personally love it, but a whole lot of people will only receive useful insights and clarity by talking through new ideas and issues and not via of writing about them.)
Can you expand on this thought further? Who decides what the "needs of the reader" are, but readers themselves? And fiction isn't "an educational product."
> Drawing is thinking.
> Sculpting is thinking
> Building things is thinking.
> Wrestling is thinking.
> Playing chess is thinking.
> Creating is thinking.
> Cooking is thinking.
> Walking is thinking.
All these statements can be correct and are correct to a certain extend.