Selfish Writing (2018)

So much this. I've been a lifelong voracious reader and only recently have I started to take writing seriously as a way to determine what I really think. I am now far more articulate, rigorous, and confident in my own beliefs than I have ever been.

Taking the time to write down what I am thinking really puts it up into the light and better equips me for communicating my point of view to others in a way that is robust, concise, and internally consistent. Even if they will never read what I've written.

Agreed. I'm currently working on a book on statistics[1] and keep discovering slight (and not so slight) misconceptions in my thinking thanks to the "optional" code examples and demonstrations. In the end, it seems the code examples won't be optional at all, but essential for understanding.

It's the same with many science and tech subjects. You don't really know it until you can code it. I'm intentionally converting some of the derivations/experiments into exercises for readers to complete on their own, so they can also benefit from this learning process.

[1] https://nobsstats.com/

True.

Being a developer in addition to being a writer helped tremendously.

That way, I was able to really try out more than just basic stuff and then write about it.

That can work, but it depends on what you're writing about. Different methods apply in different situations. But good writing has at the very least the advantage of doing what the article notes: it forces you to take what are vague convictions and impressions and justify them. You start to notice gaps in knowledge, inferential leaps, and logical inconsistencies. Only then, and only in empirical settings, do numbers come into play because they need to be motivated by and understood within some prior context. (Even when your writing begins with some number, that number is contextualized in your mind.) Of course, good writing presupposes humility and integrity or else you risk rationalizing and bullshitting.

I gather that I am not adjacent to your field of practice by any means but this resonates with me deeply.

> As much as I enjoy writing to think, simply writing doesn't lead to reality testing

Yes it's possible to get cloistered. But I find writing and formulating ideas gives way to the ability to say it. What was ineffable becomes clear language I can test with people to see how it's received.

> Some of what we today consider to be the canon of Western philosophy was never meant to be shared widely. ...Many of Aristotle's "writings" were just student-created notes of his teachings.

He wrote a large number of treatises, they just haven't survived. By contrast, all of Plato's works were preserved.

"Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises and other works covering all areas of philosophy and science. Of those, none survives in finished form. The approximately 30 works through which his thought was conveyed to later centuries consist of lecture notes (by Aristotle or his students) and draft manuscripts edited by ancient scholars, notably Andronicus of Rhodes, the last head of the Lyceum, who arranged, edited, and published Aristotle’s extant works in Rome about 60 BCE."

https://www.britannica.com/question/How-many-works-did-Arist...