1/ My thesis that by externalizing our thoughts by writing them out, we:

~Understand if we understand or not (writing is a forcing mechanism);
~Quickly see holes or problems in our ideas that we wouldn& #39;t grasp if they just remained in our thoughts;

2/

~Externalize our thinking in time such that our minds can& #39;t helpfully "update" our memories to make them consistent with what we know and think now (hindsight bias);
~Help us understand WHY we were thinking things at the time and remind us that our "memories" are unreliable

3/ narrators. There& #39;s nothing quite as shocking as truly thinking you thought something during some event and then being called a liar in your own handwriting.

This is vital for correcting our errors and updating our mental models. I simply can& #39;t think of any other easy activity

4/ that has a higher ROI than this in terms of upgrading and learning from your mistakes. I& #39;m pretty sure if I hadn& #39;t been doing this all of my adult life, it wouldn& #39;t have been nearly as easy to write this: https://jimoshaughnessy.tumblr.com/post/175118354574/mistakes-were-made-and-yes-by-me">https://jimoshaughnessy.tumblr.com/post/1751...

5/ And here& #39;s a longer thread on why I think documenting your thinking is something that gives you a huge advantage over those who don& #39;t: https://twitter.com/jposhaughnessy/status/1218578824197218309">https://twitter.com/jposhaugh...