[betterexplained] Writing is for better thinking _ writing

I often summarize what I've learned before I walk and go to bed, think about what's left of it, read and think for a while, and a whole framework of knowledge emerges in my mind. Then I would write it down, however, I was often very surprised to find that when I was writing, the new content still flowed out, just like my keyboard would think.

Half a year ago, I have in an article "with Polya learn to solve the problem" written to the question of the thinking process to write down the benefits, and now recall, then listed several points in fact not only for problem solving is a great advantage, for the usual thinking is the same truth.

The advantages of writing are as follows: Writing is a memo to thinking: When people are thinking about a problem, it's like walking in the dark with a flashlight (in fact, our working memory resources are limited, and studies have shown that we can only hold 7 plus minus 2 items in working memory, and that cognitive loads have limits), Each step gives us a small step forward, but the light of the torch shines in a limited range, we walked a few steps to find the back is black, think of the back to forget the front, think of a branch up to forget another branch, we often think about the fork, think of a fork is just, the problem is that once you want to fork too far, It's hard to go back to where you were. Sometimes, we try so hard to get out of the way, and we are always afraid to forget the progress and important conclusions that have been made, and the faint light of consciousness is spinning in a very small area, and it is impossible to go forward very far. And the thought process is recorded, which gives us the possibility to retrace our own path of thinking completely. To give a specific example, usually face a problem we often come up with a number of major, key direction of thinking, but this time if there is no note, can only be one to start thinking, the results of thinking about one, but forget the 2nd is what. If I take notes, I will first 123 list the key direction of thinking, and then unfold. Think of any branch of the process of a new discovery, but for a time without the rest of the mind to think about it, first with the key words in the side, a will look back and think carefully. In a way, the notes have the effect of forgetting. Writing is a cache of thought: Because our working memory is limited, when we think about problems in our minds, we tend to keep only a few of the most important core concepts in our working memory, leading to the idea of going around a limited range of things, and thinking is not always going too far. In this respect I have a strong feeling, usually while walking while thinking about the problem, but always feel the breadth of thinking is very limited. We might as well imagine mathematicians without paper and pens, the development of mathematics will be hindered by how much, perhaps Einstein can in the brain to conceive a key link of proof, but you can imagine without paper and pen to "buffer" the middle step of thinking, and completely in the brain to prove the Flt theorem. Sometimes I even feel that the middle result of thinking with pen and paper is the most important condition that the light of human reason can go so far. In fact, the last article I originally denoted only half, the other half (the more important part) is written in the article when they come out. Writing is a dialogue with oneself: As you write, you constantly observe the information that comes out of your pen, and after you have written down a line of text, you will not have to keep it in the temporary memory of your brain, as this line of black and White will constantly actively remind you of its existence through visual stimulation, Then you can use the empty mind energy to reflect on your own point of view. Do not believe you can see for yourself, if you do not use paper and pen, onlyBrain, it is difficult to think of a problem at the same time to reflect on their own thinking. Writing is the communication with others: everyone's thinking has some blind spots, blind spot is the blind spot is very difficult to detect, although I spent a long time to train the objective and clear thinking, but always constantly find their own thinking is still occasionally unconsciously into a blind area, when I know more about the characteristics of human thinking, The more I learned from the bottom of my heart that it is important to discuss with people, each person's blind spot is not the same, your blind spot can be supplemented by others, other people's blind spot can also be corrected by you. Heads the meaning of a Zhuge Liang is this. This is the most important value to write down and communicate with others. In addition to blind spots, we are generally very difficult to understand the gaps in our knowledge system, if one's own thinking has made a serious mistake because of ignorance of an important knowledge, it is generally difficult to reflect on yourself-if you do not know a thing, the great possibility is that you do not know that you do not know it. and write their own thinking to let others find loopholes, it is the good of their knowledge system. Sometimes the language itself thinks: when it's not put into the pen, thought in the mind of the existence of the form is often more vague, abstract, sometimes even the form of the image, however, if you need to write, or even write out to others to see and communicate, you must use the word symbol, the literal symbol actually has its own set of systems, Computational linguistics is called a semantic network, the same concept, the vague feeling in the brain, and the definite surface to reach a particular word, is not the same. You will think of another word because you have used a particular word, and you will find some words as if they were spiritual and bring out other words as you write them. Sometimes, this effect can lead to writing into a word game, but the good side is that sometimes it is beneficial to broaden or enlighten the mind.

Before I start writing your thoughts, I know that a lot of people don't write because they think there's nothing to write about, in fact, this is a vicious circle, the more you do not start writing, always take the limited thinking of the cache to meditate on a problem, the more there is no content to write, if you force yourself to write down some immature ideas, Looking at the content of their own writing, try to further expand them, it is possible on the road of rationality to go very far, very far.

I wish you all a happy writing.

from:http://mindhacks.cn/2009/02/09/writing-is-better-thinking/