And "thinking is writing" when the latter is used as the medium to convey your thoughts. There's a fun story I like to tell my students when I teach them the importance of writing.
Richard Feynman was once going to be interviewed in his office. However, the interviewer showed up early while Feynman was perhaps lecturing and got to look around in his office.
Apart from the math equations scattered all over the place, the interviewer noticed a few booklets. He opened one and noticed it wasn't filled with math problems Feynman was perhaps woking on at the time, it was writing. And lots of it. He was baffled, why all this writing?
The interviewer finally got a chance to ask Feynman, and Feynman is noted to have said (I'm paraphrasing a little) "it's my thinking, I need it"!
I might want to reshare the story at my team's bookclub. Going to make a list of books they shall read both work related and not. One is prob "You must be joking Mr. Feynman'.
Writing is the world's greatest invention, period. You listed a few stories where groups of people struggled to get to agreement until everything was clarified in writing. I've even seen this happen with 1:1's! Especially when starting to work with people from other teams for the first time. Assumptions and terminology are different, just like different dialects of the same language.
One other thing I'd like to mention is the form of the writing. Essays, bullet points, and tables (matrices) all serve different purposes.
Great post. Journaing decisions is a great way to not just to be aligned but also to more accurately assess quality of thinking subsequently once the outcome unfolds and not let hindsight bias creep in.
The historical record is critical to the well-functioning of organizations and teams. Being able to look back and understand how and why we make the decisions we do helps us improve over time.
"Write it down" for collaboration. Writing it down helps collaborate, share ideas as well. As you mentioned, it brings clarity and when there are several people collaborating, having all the thoughts on paper is eye-opening.
100%!
'Writing is thinking' and 'thinking out loud' were the first tips I usually gave when I coach junior PMs. And I wish I got this advice when I started.
I asked everyone on my team to improve communication skills throughout their career including myself :)
And "thinking is writing" when the latter is used as the medium to convey your thoughts. There's a fun story I like to tell my students when I teach them the importance of writing.
Richard Feynman was once going to be interviewed in his office. However, the interviewer showed up early while Feynman was perhaps lecturing and got to look around in his office.
Apart from the math equations scattered all over the place, the interviewer noticed a few booklets. He opened one and noticed it wasn't filled with math problems Feynman was perhaps woking on at the time, it was writing. And lots of it. He was baffled, why all this writing?
The interviewer finally got a chance to ask Feynman, and Feynman is noted to have said (I'm paraphrasing a little) "it's my thinking, I need it"!
Beautiful and practical, thanks for sharing Alex!
I might want to reshare the story at my team's bookclub. Going to make a list of books they shall read both work related and not. One is prob "You must be joking Mr. Feynman'.
Writing is the world's greatest invention, period. You listed a few stories where groups of people struggled to get to agreement until everything was clarified in writing. I've even seen this happen with 1:1's! Especially when starting to work with people from other teams for the first time. Assumptions and terminology are different, just like different dialects of the same language.
One other thing I'd like to mention is the form of the writing. Essays, bullet points, and tables (matrices) all serve different purposes.
This comment was NOT written by ChatGPT. :)
Agree. Assumptions are the enemy of clarity. Writing it down gets everyone on the same page.
I fully agree! Writing forces you to think clearly. Writing clearly shows any faults and white spaces in your thinking.
I wrote a similar piece myself a while back: https://www.leadinginproduct.com/p/why-writing-is-superior
Thanks for sharing! You are spot on.
Great post. Journaing decisions is a great way to not just to be aligned but also to more accurately assess quality of thinking subsequently once the outcome unfolds and not let hindsight bias creep in.
The historical record is critical to the well-functioning of organizations and teams. Being able to look back and understand how and why we make the decisions we do helps us improve over time.
"Write it down" for collaboration. Writing it down helps collaborate, share ideas as well. As you mentioned, it brings clarity and when there are several people collaborating, having all the thoughts on paper is eye-opening.