-Thomas Jefferson
If I wrote everyday, it’d be mundane. It’d be my emotional reaction to the latest news. It’d lack deep analysis and thought. I do a lot in life, but I’m not sure I have time nor reason to write an essay per day. Maybe if my life was structured around having deep conversations, I could write more. I’m not a philosopher. I’m not a writer. I simply do stuff. And by doing, I come across topics I find interesting to explore.
The work I do is operational in nature. It’s also strategic. I agree with Frank Slootman (former CEO of Data Domain and ServiceNow and CEO of Snowflake) in Amp It Up where he says those in charge of strategy should be those who are best at executing. One needs to understand “how to do” before telling others “what to do”. Junior employees often want to be involved with strategy. When given authority too early, this tends to backfire as they don’t have the pattern recognition nor experience understanding what it entails to accomplish tasks they assign. There are one-way door and two-way door decisions. Two-way door decisions can take time, especially when accounting for mistakes.
Lincoln used to write an angry letter and put it in his desk. He’d reread the letter the next day. If he was still angry, he’d wait another day. He’d then decide to never send it. Numerous historical figures utilized this technique. There’s often little upside in belittling an opponent or ally. It invigorates your opponents and discourages your allies.
Imagine how it would feel, even if you were wrong, to receive a message harshly critical of you. A message tearing you down. Before sending a chastising message to someone, imagine how the person you’re sending the message to will react.
The essays I write are written once a week and revisited and edited before publishing. My published essays have most of the snark/meanness removed. They’re still real. They’re still me and how I think, but aren’t truly how I felt at the moment of writing. And I think that’s good. Essays shouldn’t be unfiltered, childish venting. They should be well reasoned with biases disclosed. They can still be deeply emotional. They should have a voice. My goal is to get to the truth and encourage others to seek it as well. Not to push my negative emotions out into the world for them to spread like a virus. This is why I’m not really active on social media like Twitter.
Social media is often a vile place. Most tweet storms are amplifying a small inconvenience. Luxury “problems” are treated as paramount. Social media is distracting. Context switching causes people to perform worse on all tasks. The inherent context switching of social media makes us stupider, while using it.
When teaching beginners chess, the first lesson is to think with your mind, not your hands. Once you touch a piece, you have to move it; Beginners always regret touching pieces. Social media is full of a bunch of people touching pieces. To have an adult conversation, one needs to stop and think.
My once a week routine allows me to collect my thoughts. It allows me to look at the chessboard. I’ve written many essays I’ll never publish. I could never see myself publishing them. There’s no upside. They may be true, but not every truth is worth saying. Not everything written needs to be published. Writing as a practice isn’t for others. It’s for you.