I tend to agree with Paul Graham who has written several essays on the importance of writing as a tool for thinking. For years now I have kept a private daily journal, as well as all kinds of technical notes.
So this website primarily works for my own benefit: Processing my private writing into more presentable form gives me opportunities to recall and adjust my old ideas.
Here is one of Graham’s articles on the topic of writing. He has collected some of his best essays in a book called “Hackers & Painters”.
Graham is also the creator of the Hacker News’s forum that features quite often in quotes on this website.
When I was in grad school I used to hang around the MIT AI Lab occasionally. It was kind of intimidating at first. Everyone there spoke so fast. But after a while I learned the trick of speaking fast. You don’t have to think any faster; just use twice as many words to say everything.
