Writing

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Writing is hard. You’re condensing your thoughts into more general concepts that can (hopefully) be understood by others. It’s equivalent to compressing a giant file (your mind) into some smaller artifact (some scribbles on a page).

Writing is valuable. It’s how we can give the gift of knowledge to the future. One can learn some concept and teach it to others with no investment other than the time spent compressing that knowledge.

Writing is introspective and philosophical. Writing delves into the nature of knowledge. What’s worth sharing with others?

The process of writing is good practice for thinking. It forces you to focus on communicating clearly. It makes you think about language and how to effectively convey concepts. It makes you consider if your examples are truly clear and engaging, or just a distraction not adding any value.

I’m really bad at writing. My thoughts are chaotic and disorganized and hard to communicate. Praciting writing gives me the chance to hone what I’ve been thinking about, and work “muscles” to help me communicate more clearly.

Recent posts from blogs that I like

Paintings of gales 2

Paintings by Millet, Winslow Homer, Monet, Caillebotte, Christian Krogh, Granville Redmond, Franz von Stuck and others.

via The Eclectic Light Company

Notes on the complex roots of unity

One of the most wonderful aspects of math is how deep we can get by studying seemingly trivial questions. Consider the roots of unity, where "unity" simply means the number 1. Basics: roots of unity for real numbers Studying the roots of unity usually begins in middle school: what is the square root...

via Eli Bendersky

Writing is no longer proof of work

Tech companies structurally depend on writing to serve as evidence, in the same way that Bitcoin depends on proof-of-work hashing. However, in the last few years, LLMs have started to undermine this practice.

How can writing be like proof-of-work? When I’m writing something at work, it’s not always ...

via Sean Goedecke