I had a blog in my college days, during the covid time, on Hashnode. Then I was approached by a talent acquisition member from Scaler, and I wrote a couple of paid articles for them. I did that as a freelancing job. But after I started my Full time job after college, I had to quit the freelancing job.
One day, I got bored, and I suddenly remembered one of my articles and thought one of my colleagues might find it useful. I found that and gave a quick read, and I was surprised by how good it was. More precisely, I realised how bad I have got. How far I have drifted.
So I started writing, and found that writing exposed the gaps and connections in my knowledge. I could actually think more clearly and more easily now. I can see the flaws in my thinking.
Writing is thinking made visible. It exposes gaps in reasoning that casual thinking misses and creates a permanent record of insights that would otherwise fade. 1
Apart from these my reading skills and my ability to focus and undertstand has also improved, a lot.
I believe writing is one of the best way to develop original thoughts in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
When the Industrial Revolution made it possible to live lives without physical exertion, going to the gym became necessary to stay fit. Equally, now that the AI Revolution has made it possible to live without mental exertion, we need the mental equivalent of gyms to stay sharp. 2
You don’t need to write anything, and that is exactly why you should write. If not for an audience at least for yourself.
That is how and why I started writing miniEssays for myself.