22 Writing

22.1 Writing to Clarify Your Thinking

Writing is a powerful tool for clarifying your thoughts, even before you start searching for answers. When questions or ideas come up, it’s good practice to write them down immediately—this helps you:

Organize your thoughts and identify what you actually need to know
Articulate the problem more precisely
Often realize the answer yourself through the process of writing

As Leslie Lamport, a Turing Award winner and computer scientist, states: “If you think you understand something, and don’t write down your ideas, you only think you’re thinking” (Lamport 2019).