{
  "id": "c2fa29ed9a5b",
  "url": "https://fs.blog/writing-to-think/",
  "title": "Writing to Think",
  "note": "I love everything about this essay. I've shared articles in the past that hit on the same topic, and this one puts it together really well. One of the big reasons I write is to be a better writer. And if writing is thinking, you necessarily are becoming a better thinker. \n\n> Writing forces you to slow down, focus your attention, and [think deeply](https://fs.blog/how-to-think/). In a world where attention is fragmented in seconds, thinking becomes more reactive than reasoned. Only when we have time to play with a problem can we hope to think about it substantially. Writing requires sticking with something a little longer and developing a deeper understanding.\n\nRight there is what I have found such an improvement over social media. Social media prefers blurts of words that have impact. But thinking rarely happens in a single sentence. The power of clear thought, expressed in sentences and paragraphs, is incredible. \n\nAnd this section on PowerPoint is so spot on.\n\n> Most organizations see PowerPoint and writing as interchangeable. They are not. PowerPoint masks poor thinking. Just because presentations are easy to create doesn't mean the person creating them understands what they are talking about. If my experience is any indication, about 30-40% of people giving presentations lack more than a surface-level knowledge of what they are presenting. All the time spent making the presentation look good comes at the expense of wrestling with the problem and developing unique insights.\n\nI feel like I see this constantly. PowerPoint is a damaging tool to clear thought. I've seen countless slides over the years that look impressive, like they make a point and are for some reason meaningful. But if inspected, the \"bullets\" don't actually represent a complete thought. They hit on the high points and lose all the connective tissue.\n\nOne of the more worrisome things I've seen with our kids in school is how they use presentations (Google Slides, not PowerPoint — but the same thing) as part of a learning process. Slideware with bullets should be considered anti-learning. ",
  "voice": "mixed",
  "saved": "2023-12-05T02:09:57Z",
  "host": "fs.blog",
  "kind": "page",
  "tags": [
    "_feature"
  ],
  "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c2fa29ed9a5b/",
  "markdown": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c2fa29ed9a5b.md",
  "issues": [
    {
      "number": 272,
      "slug": "272",
      "title": "Weekly Thing 272 / Escape, Fuzzy, Melodrip",
      "date": "2023-12-10T13:00:00Z",
      "section": "Featured",
      "position": 1,
      "url": "https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/272/",
      "page": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/issues/272/"
    }
  ],
  "connections": {
    "same_host": {
      "count": 15,
      "page": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/fs.blog/",
      "nearest": [
        {
          "id": "7052fd41189c",
          "title": "How to Think: The Skill You've Never Been Taught - Farnam Street",
          "url": "https://fs.blog/how-to-think/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7052fd41189c/"
        },
        {
          "id": "e1c51ee45a4d",
          "title": "The Wrong Side of Right - Farnam Street",
          "url": "https://fs.blog/wrong-side-right/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e1c51ee45a4d/"
        },
        {
          "id": "a4a4a11d2f7d",
          "title": "Why Write?",
          "url": "https://fs.blog/why-write/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a4a4a11d2f7d/"
        },
        {
          "id": "dbd1b76921ca",
          "title": "The Ultimate Deliberate Practice Guide: How to Be the Best",
          "url": "https://fs.blog/deliberate-practice-guide/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/dbd1b76921ca/"
        },
        {
          "id": "79b6516432b5",
          "title": "Matthew Dicks: How to Tell a Story so That Everyone Listens [The Knowledge Project Ep. #202]",
          "url": "https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/matthew-dicks/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/79b6516432b5/"
        }
      ]
    },
    "same_week": {
      "count": 28,
      "nearest": [
        {
          "id": "383dbd9d08f6",
          "title": "trains.fyi",
          "url": "https://trains.fyi/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/383dbd9d08f6/"
        },
        {
          "id": "6218f20fd803",
          "title": "My techno-optimism",
          "url": "https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6218f20fd803/"
        },
        {
          "id": "0816e53e61cb",
          "title": "Please, United: Don’t Do It. – Doc Searls Weblog",
          "url": "https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/28/united-dont/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0816e53e61cb/"
        },
        {
          "id": "04f49e2c18e9",
          "title": "Learnings from fine-tuning LLM on my Telegram messages",
          "url": "https://asmirnov.xyz/doppelganger",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/04f49e2c18e9/"
        },
        {
          "id": "61d68ef59c36",
          "title": "Writing Documentation for Your House",
          "url": "https://luke.hsiao.dev/blog/housing-documentation/",
          "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/61d68ef59c36/"
        }
      ]
    },
    "mentions": [
      {
        "id": "7052fd41189c",
        "title": "How to Think: The Skill You've Never Been Taught - Farnam Street",
        "url": "https://fs.blog/how-to-think/",
        "record": "https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7052fd41189c/"
      }
    ],
    "mentioned_by": [],
    "saved_twice": []
  },
  "elsewhere": {
    "wayback": "https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://fs.blog/writing-to-think/"
  }
}