Tumble Confused Device

On writing for knowledge

There has always been writers, and others that use the pen too, reflecting on the role of the writing process in their creative production and their knowledge attainments. Most question if you don’t write, what do you really know?

Seneca, around 4a.c. in Moral letters to Lucillius, n.84 on the topic of Gathering Ideas, recommended an alternation between reading and writing, “so the fruits of one’s reading may be reduced to concrete form by the pen”.

Wallas in 1926(p.106) and Forster in 1927(p.151)¹ stated, literally, “how do I know what I think until I see what I say?”.

I’m not going to argue in favour of writing. It is obvious that writing should be a major part of your daily activities. Writing about what you know, writing about what you don’t know, writing about what you dream and imagine. It does not matter what. Whatever you write about, you organize. You reflect upon.

The slow nature of writing, the synesthesia between thinking and movement of your hand (or hands if you write on a computer), both imprint a strong mark in your knowledge of the topic. Probably you will even find new ideas because of writing.

As Paul Graham said “writing doesn’t just communicate ideas, it generates them”. By the way, his essay “Writing, Briefly” is a must read.

In science it is not different. In a recent editorial, Nature Reviews bioengineering wrote a piece called Writing is thinking - On the value of human-generated scientific writing in the age of large-language models. The main point is that LLM writers (as they are NOT, lacking accountability), will deprive you, the WRITER, of the opportunity to reflect on your field and engage in creative, essential task of shaping research findings.

Writing is an essential skill to have. It is the organiser of your thoughts, the map you construct for your intellectual travels. The compass by which one chooses the best route, sometimes, but also the tool that carves new paths for the mind to take. Don’t underrate this simple tool. And take your time. Don’t rush it. Don’t let life get in the way of your brain/writing.