But there’s a subtler idea in PG’s argument—that a certain kind of thinking is only possible through writing. He doesn’t say specifically what kind of thinking that is, but I can take an educated guess: When you turn the vast, interconnected network of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in your mind into a line of words, you find sequence, order, and story. You expose fallacy and fuzziness. Externalizing your thoughts pins them down, and once they are pinned you can bring your whole mind to bear on them, over and over, to clarify and improve them. And writing doesn’t just tell you what you already think somewhere in the cobwebbed attic of your brain. It actively helps you to generate new—and better—thoughts and ideas as you do it. (View Highlight)
I believe this is the kind of thinking PG is afraid might go away, or at least become more scarce in an AI-driven future. He likens this to physical strength in pre-industrial times. Everyone used to be strong before the Industrial Revolution as a result of performing manual labor. But now that machines can do a lot of that labor, many people are strong only if they choose to go to the gym. (View Highlight)
As a manager, you need to clearly communicate the problem you want to solve and the vision you have for solving it. You have to decide who should work on it and how. You need to know what to delegate and what to do yourself—and how to tell the difference. As your team progresses and you see the output of their work, you often change your thinking about the problem you’re trying to solve. Sometimes you’ll come to new conclusions that you could have never anticipated at the start. What’s more, much of managing is done through writing, and managers who can write better are more effective than those who can’t. (View Highlight)