1, #145 - Write what you don't know.

Estimated Read Time: 56 seconds.

You need to understand something before you write about it… right?

Stephen King (and many other writers) have said the opposite: “I write to find out what I think.”

Paul Graham wrote a whole essay about this:

“Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought. Putting ideas into words is a severe test. … Half the ideas that end up in an essay will be ones you thought of while you were writing it. Indeed, that's why I write them.”

By the end, he makes an even bolder claim—that complete understanding is practically impossible without writing:

“If writing down your ideas always makes them more precise and more complete, then no one who hasn't written about a topic has fully formed ideas about it. And someone who never writes has no fully formed ideas about anything nontrivial.
It feels to them as if they do, especially if they're not in the habit of critically examining their own thinking. Ideas can feel complete. It's only when you try to put them into words that you discover they're not. So if you never subject your ideas to that test, you'll not only never have fully formed ideas, but also never realize it.”

The point? You should start writing! “Write what you know” is the popular advice, but if “Write what you don’t know” works, too, there’s no reason to wait.

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Insight inspired by PG’s Putting Ideas into Words. Thanks to

Dan Hockenmaier

for sharing it!