Curating is an easy way to start writing. I'm happy that many friends have read what I've written. For a long time, I have curated information on different web3 platforms and communities. I have to say, for those who want to enter this industry, curation is a low-entry barrier but also a way to gradually delve into the industry.
Simply put, curation is introducing topics you're interested in to others in your own words, and the creation of these introductions is writing.
Through writing, I increasingly feel that it is an efficient learning method. In the process of writing, it is easy to discover areas where I am unfamiliar, and then we can use this as a prompt to improve our knowledge system.
At the same time, the process of writing is a process of rethinking and understanding the content. Through writing, we gain a deeper and exclusive understanding of the content.
In this way, we can learn about specific content through writing.
Writing helps construct ourselves. Every day, I receive a lot of industry content through social media, RSS, email subscriptions, etc. I also have exchanges with communities and various professionals. In this process, I read articles of different styles and different sub-fields, which raises a question: others have already written so much, do ordinary people like us still need to write? After thinking for a long time, I came to the conclusion that it is very necessary.
Human knowledge is inherited through constant rewriting, and this is even more important for individuals. By writing our own thoughts, we spread our thoughts on the field. For ourselves, we are constructing our own knowledge system. Different people may be interested in different expressions, and our writing style may happen to appeal to some people, thus influencing them. This is a very meaningful thing.
Writing is the field where thinking happens. Recently, I have realized that I should think through writing, rather than writing down the results of my thinking. Before, when I wanted to write about a topic, I would read a lot of materials and create a structure for the writing. I would only start writing after I felt I had enough understanding and thinking about the topic. In this case, it would take a long time and be difficult to start writing. However, after changing my mindset, the threshold for starting writing is lowered. Instead of thinking about having a complete result before outputting, I think about deepening my thinking and exploration of the topic during the writing process, completing the thinking about the topic through writing.
The key is two steps:
- Start writing, it can be random, just write a few hundred words.
- Improve the thinking about the topic during the writing process, treating writing as the field where thinking happens.
The pace of updating content. Although I envy and admire friends who update regularly, I personally cannot do it. One reason is that I feel regular updates can lead to creative anxiety. I would think about making commitments to others through my writing, and I would lose the joy of writing. At the same time, it is easy to write about topics that I am not very interested in or hastily write incomplete content just for the sake of regular publishing. I think this kind of writing has no meaning.
The form of article writing. Here, the form refers to the length of the article. Many friends write very long articles, often exceeding 5,000 words or even more than 10,000 words. Reading such articles has been my choice for a long time, as these long articles allow for a deep understanding of a topic. However, after long-term reading of long articles, I found that although the authors put a lot of effort into producing high-quality content, from my perspective, there are two problems with this type of long-form writing:
- Readers - reading long content requires dedicated time and a large amount of energy, and not all of it can be absorbed (giving too much at once).
- Authors - writing long-form texts is very exhausting, and after finishing one, it is difficult to have the motivation to start the next one (professional writers may not be too bothered by this).
Facing these challenges, I have come up with a writing method that suits me, taking inspiration from artistic works and creating a series of writings. For example, if I want to write about potatoes, I won't write a 20,000-word long article, but I will have a "Potato Series" and construct a complete work through multiple short writings.
This form of writing brings about significant changes. First, there are no longer strong thoughts like "procrastination" or "wait for more thinking" before writing, and I can start writing directly. Second, compared to writing long articles, the process of writing a series of works generates new ideas, giving the feeling of "growth" throughout the writing process. Finally, for readers, they can also read short articles one by one, thus understanding the content they are interested in through a series, and the threshold for reading is lowered.
The writing style. I enjoy reading highly professional articles and academic papers, but I want my own writing to be more casual and conversational, easy to understand. I believe that complex and logical content can still be expressed clearly in an easy-to-understand and conversational manner. Lowering the reading threshold for readers and improving the reading experience is a question that writers need to consider.
In conclusion, writing is an extremely beneficial activity for individuals and an effective training path for improving self-thinking. Don't think too much, just write a few hundred words.
Wishing all friends well!