It has been a year since this piece of land was created, and in this year, I have been updating my thoughts or learning at a rate of about one article per month. During this year, I have also experienced various things and witnessed the rise and fall of various social phenomena. This article is a review of the writing theme for me in this year.
Writing is deeper thinking#
Although I have nearly 20 years of education history and have mostly engaged in mental work after work, and have maintained the habit of reading, I often write long paragraphs of text when chatting with others. I have received encouragement and accepted rebuttals. However, whenever I have to write an article specifically, I always feel anxious and unable to find the right way. I often have to think about it for several days, and in the end, I still feel that it is not good, unsatisfactory, and unable to start. This is partly due to a lack of practice in writing skills and a lack of thinking and understanding of certain things. As for my monthly writing, I hope to discuss a topic in depth, and write the article in a logical and clear manner. For me, this process is more about self-exploration rather than writing words. Many thoughts are constantly being investigated, tracked, and pulled out during the writing process. Writing is a process that forces me to think deeply.
In the previous theme writing, I have been trying to show my thinking process and present some methodologies. I think it is meaningless for most people to only give the thinking results. Those are just pieces of information that we can search on Google at any time and do not deserve our memory. What we need to understand is how others think step by step and deduce to reach a certain point. "How do others think" is perhaps where we should learn.
If there is a lack of writing skills, you can read some books on writing methodologies targetedly, record the basic methods, and use them in each writing. Basically mastering four or five commonly used methods can help you write good texts, and in this case, you will go further than most people in writing. As for my own writing or doing other things, I have summarized the following points:
1. Don't be afraid, just start#
Many times, we are not unable to do something, including writing. Even if it is poorly written, we can at least write something. But why do most people not write in most cases (I am talking about the situation where they want to write but never start writing)? Based on my personal experience, the main difficulty lies in the action of "starting to write". I call it the "germination moment". For example, I may have wanted to write an article for a long time, and I have also scheduled it, but the truth is that this task will be transferred from one day's schedule to the next day's schedule. The reason behind this is that I have a tendency to avoid this task in my heart. I feel that it is troublesome, difficult, and requires thinking, etc.
How did I solve this problem? Just start directly, don't worry about how bad it is, don't think about completing it at once, just start doing it. If we complete this step, it is equivalent to completing 30% of the task. Overcoming our emotional resistance and avoidance, we have already completed a large part. If you want to write a theme, then write down the content you can think of paragraph by paragraph. At this time, you will find that you have already written so much. Based on these contents, we can continuously generate more questions and thoughts, solve existing problems, and state our own thoughts. With the gradual accumulation of content, we will be surprised to find that we have already written a lot of words, and the writing is not bad. At this point, we have basically entered the rhythm of writing.
So to summarize, when you don't know how to start writing, first let go of the idea that this thing is difficult and needs to be avoided; secondly, don't think about writing with clear logic and clear points at once, but write down your thoughts paragraph by paragraph, even if there is no clear main line; thirdly, you can follow the new questions that appear in your own thoughts and ideas, find more thoughts, and record them.
2. Writing structure is important#
After the above steps, we have already discovered that we have written so many words. Of course, the texts in different paragraphs may have significant differences and jumps. At this time, we need to determine the main structure of an article. We can reread the existing paragraphs and think about what we want to express step by step, how to develop it, and create a mind map-like structure diagram of "what to express first, what to express later, and how to express each step".
When we have the structure diagram, we can sort the existing texts according to the structure diagram, and deal with the places that need modification and improvement. Overall, it will be a relatively good article.
Of course, some people may organize the structure of the article first and then start writing. Then you may ask why we should write down our thoughts before organizing the structure of the article. In fact, in the process of writing down our thoughts, we are dispelling the consciousness of "writing this article is difficult", and at the same time, the process of organizing fragmentary thoughts is also a process of rethinking the topic. If we are asked to conduct comprehensive and rigorous thinking on the entire topic, we will definitely not be able to start easily. It is precisely because we can freely record our existing thoughts that this operation is not stressful. At the same time, in the process of outputting seemingly scattered paragraphs, we deepen our thinking about the topic, laying the foundation for the work of organizing the main structure of the article.
3. Iteration and optimization are more important#
Our cultural attributes have influenced us with the idea of "if you do something, you must do it perfectly, otherwise don't do it". Then, in the consciousness of most of us, it is "if you can't do it well, don't do it", which leads to many people being unable to start in order to achieve perfection. In this case, my feeling is: no matter what, just do it and improve it along the way. For example, if we want to go 20 kilometers, we may walk first, then buy a bicycle when conditions permit, buy a motorcycle when conditions are better, and buy a car when conditions are even better. The most important thing here is to start writing first, write it out, and then optimize it again and again. The idea of trying to write a good thing at once is the most terrible stumbling block.
Don't be afraid to start writing because it is not good, but be careful not to wait for inspiration to come before starting. I know some people who think that writing is an expression that emerges from inspiration, but I think writing is more like a craft. By constantly writing and modifying, we can continuously improve our perception and control of words, and better express and think. Inspiration is not a specific attribute but something that needs to be accumulated by us. Our perception, thinking, and understanding of the world are silently gathered, and more use of writing to construct our own sources of inspiration is what we should do.
4. Learn from top masters#
In this era, there are too many things that are enough to disturb our minds, making it difficult for us to think deeply and explore. We may spend three or four hours watching short videos, but rarely spend an hour reading an academic book. We often deceive ourselves by saying, "I am watching knowledge-sharing videos." But the knowledge we learn from spending a lot of time on short videos may not make much difference to us. These pieces of information can be searched at any time and do not require us to memorize them. It is just a reason for us to justify our avoidance behavior while avoiding thinking.
We not only need to know a certain knowledge point, which is just the result of others' thinking, but we also need to learn how others start from a phenomenon and explore step by step to reach a conclusion, what thinking process they use, and how they argue. We need to learn how others explore the essence from a phenomenon and what the path is like. Only by learning these can we have our own thinking and draw conclusions when facing different situations.
When it comes to this operation, many people may feel that it is difficult to learn from where. In fact, reading the works of top masters is a good method. For example, if you are interested in market economy, then search for the top masters in this field and read their works. Basically, you will become a half expert. Because the works of these masters revolve around a problem and deduce to reach a conclusion step by step. In the process of reading, we follow the author's thinking and subtly form a thinking method.
After this, someone may raise the question, "It is too difficult to read academic works at the beginning." I have also encountered this situation. In this case, we can find some books that interpret the original works and read them first, and then read the original works. Reading should not be rushed. Reading a good book carefully is better than simply reading several books.
Rethinking writing#
Unconsciously, a year has passed. During this writing process, I have also expressed my thoughts and exploration of the world. Many viewpoints may have changed from when I first wrote them, but this is also what attracts me. It shows that our thoughts are growing. It is like a tree, constantly absorbing nutrients from the outside world and growing new branches, reaching out to areas that have not been reached before.
But I am also trying to write down some content that is not easily eroded by time. This requires delving into the underlying layers of things, exploring the more essential and foundational aspects, and in this process, it also exercises my cognitive abilities and broadens my thinking about how to deal with problems. If writing has any meaning, I think the most important thing is that writing is a process of "seeing myself". We understand things in the outside world, learn various knowledge, and explore things in writing, all of which constantly help us to understand the world more clearly. This understanding comes from the self in our body. In writing, our self is constantly developing and growing. At the same time, through writing, we can see more clearly the existence of our self, discover its strengths and gradually accept its shortcomings. This process is "seeing myself".
Recording the present#
As individuals, we are small and insignificant. I particularly like watching documentaries. From the universe to animals, from humanities to food, the more I watch, the more I feel the insignificance of myself as an individual and the transience of life. But it is also because of this that I cherish the short-lived beauty more. Life is a journey with a limit of a hundred years. How to live a life that is worth it? This is a question worth pondering. I do not want to live only for the material desires and ethics of survival. The process is important, and the meaning is important.
Writing is a record of my true life for me. In the digital age, like the mighty river, I am just recording the existence of a real individual here, a living person's "slice of the present world".
Reading List
Books:
"Upgrading"
"Five-Dimensional Thinking Method"
"Decentralized Society: In Search of the Soul of Web3"
"Economics of Common Interests"
"Model Thinking"
Courses:
"Chen Chunhua's Management Common Sense Course"
You can also find me in these places:
Mirror: Hoodrh
Twitter: Hoodrh