When you spend some time in an elevated sense of awareness, you start noticing intricacies that usually go unnoticed. If you pay attention and consistently refine those raw observations, your depth of understanding deepens. And with better understanding comes the confidence to express it.
“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” – Carl Jung
In 2023 after quitting my corporate job I took a resolution to read as many books as possible. It was an honest attempt to honor my curiosity and sense of wonder. Soon I realised that without note-taking and revision, reading doesn’t help much. So I created a digital repository to save my notes and to revise them frequently. Finally, after many years of failed attempts to stay consistent with book reading and note taking I was finally able to turn this longing desire into a sustainable habit.
The decision of creating a knowldge repository helped me gamify the process of knowledge acquisition. This motivated me to consistently delve into the topics that piqued my curiosity. I could now keep revising the notes at my own pace, edit them in my words and improve my understanding. At times, I find this process profoundly gratifying because of the ‘Aha!’ moments and dopamine rush during novel insights.
But all this knowledge doesn’t mean much if I cannot express it in my own voice. I enjoy expressing myself through videos and writing, but both demand a firm understanding of the topic first. That’s why I find blogging in public to be essential in my situation. The act of writing in public compels me to structure my thoughts and shape them into a coherent piece. After all, the best way to learn is by teaching it to others.
“If you want to master something, teach it. “
– Richard Feyman
In an age where personal blogging is deemed dead, I need it. Precisely because it puts me in a space to refine my thinking by improving my writing.
Every line written is translation of organic thoughts into symbols.
Once the symbols are down on the screen, it alters our perception of that thought. Editing those symbols is editing the understanding of that thought. Rearranging the symbols are restructuring the thoughts. When done consistently with patience and complete involvement, our thoughts become relatively well-arranged compared to when we started. We gain confidence in our voice and it’s easy to share our learning with others.