We only have so much time in our lives. With capitalism and the pursuit of hyper-optimizing productivity, we are often trying to do more and more in less and less time.

Despite working in the tech industry, particularly with startups that are always moving fast, I often find myself feeling nostalgic about the slower and more beautiful ways of life that people in the past appear to have lived.

Why read? When short-form video can transmit exponentially more words to us in a fraction of the time it would take to read a book or article.

I believe that reading pure text is an irreplaceable way to experience stories and ideas, my experience reading for leisure this year (2024) has been phenomenal and I have spent most of the year getting my friends to re-engage in it as well. It truly feels like you are stepping through the story yourself, you control the pace, and you get a personal spin on it through your imagination, driven by your unique life experiences. Reading also allows you to mentally digest and apply events and ideas from the text to your own life (also it's not acceptable to constantly pause and unpause a show or a movie nor does it emulate the experience I describe here). To read is to go on a unique journey with the writer.

Why write? To live is to be present. To be fully present is to slow down and allow yourself to think and do, simultaneously or in isolation.

Writing is an extension of thought and is one of the best ways to simultaneously think and do. It is accepting your thoughts and committing them to the physical world. Whether you are writing with pen and paper, or typing and storing your thoughts as 1s and 0s, good writing forces you to slow down and think. Write to truly live. Live truly to write.

To Whom Am I Writing?

Let's get this out of the way. You might ask, "Why write if no one will read it?" to which the simple answer is "Write for yourself". My omission of further elaboration here is an invitation for you to examine why writing purely for yourself might add value to your personal life or career, now or in the future, directly or indirectly.

But let's examine the idea of reaching many readers with your thoughts. The problem of distribution and adoption is not a problem unique to distributing written works; getting people to spend their time or money on anything is difficult. You need to convince people that there is value in what you are offering. In the time you have spent reading my writing you have either, subconsciously or consciously decided that this is either:

"a whole lot of yap"
OR
"there is perhaps value to gain in reading this text to completion"

I hope you are leaning towards the latter, as I am starting my writing journey with one of my goals being that I inspire people to live and think more deeply or in different ways. Think of the movie Inception, and planting an idea like a seed in one's mind.

Without getting too off-topic, I'd like to answer this question for myself. I am writing for myself to cultivate my ability to think and improve my ability to express my thoughts in ways that inspire thought and action in myself and others. And I am writing for others with the hope that I can help people with tech/career related advice, or to entertain with storytelling.

To my prospective audience of readers, I will be writing in a way that stays true to my way of thinking and conversational flow which is heavily influenced by my ADHD. I will write in a way that "dates" the text as I find it interesting as a reader to be able to determine when something was written based on pop-culture references, memes, or simply mentions of specific everyday items. Also, text containing the influence of a certain time period makes for a good DBQ (for my fellow APUSH students). References also give insight into the experiences and mind of the writer, however much the reader chooses to dig into that.

Write To Live

Writing is a form of art. It is one of the purest forms of self-expression, and it is an activity that most people have the capacity to enjoy, as well as a skill that can be developed and made their own throughout their lives.

To truly live is to do more than just survive, it is to experience and feel a diverse range of emotions, life events, and thoughts.

Writing invokes thought, which is likely to guide you to experience new ideas and experiences.

If you had the choice of being a happy and content pig that had its basic needs met (but no capability of experiencing higher pleasures or thoughts), or a miserable human that has the capacity to experience a wide array of emotions and thoughts, what would you choose to be?

This is a common philosophical question that has been debated for centuries, most people would choose to remain human despite being unhappy. We collectively appreciate and value our ability to think and feel to a degree that most other animals cannot. And now more than ever, with all our technological advancements, you truly have the ability to be the pig. And I don't mean to literally be transformed into a pig, we're not that far into the future yet, but with phones and social media it is easier than ever to get sucked into doom-scrolling and essentially be in the position of the pig. Living monotonous days where you wake up, meet your basic needs, and fill the time with empty living, leaving little to no free time/downtime to think and be present.

Writing is an activity that most people feel they don't have the time and patience for. But realistically you do have the time (some people truly do not, but if you're reading this you likely are not one of those people), you just need to make the conscious effort to prioritize it. One of the avenues to regaining control and living life more fully and on your own terms is through writing. To go through the entirety of your life without writing or thinking deeply is to go through it mindlessly.

Live To Write

You can live a happier and more fulfilling life if you think about how you might one day write about it. Even if you don't care for showing off or bragging to others about the life you live. Going along with this idea of expression and sharing your stories with others. The advice often told to young people is to live life as if you're being filmed for a movie/documentary. This can be helpful under the assumption that you then live a more interesting and fulfilling life because you know it will be watched by others.

However, I believe living as if you are expected to write stories, or a biography is even better as it alleviates the unrealistic expectation of living an always perfect life (being under the constant watch of a camera), and instead frames living as seeking adventures and experiences to write about. And furthermore, even the mundane, peaceful moments in life are still valuable, and often written about, consider poems admiring fleeting, beautiful moments in time. Little blips of life that would not make for an interesting video or movie, but are still valuable to remember and write about.

Why Am I Writing?

I am writing to live more thoughtfully. I am writing to share my thoughts and experiences with others. I am writing to foster connection between people. I am writing to process my thoughts and emotions. I am writing to be remembered and to leave my mark on the world.

Closing Notes On This Text

This a relatively unrevised piece of text. It represents a relatively raw view of my thought process and ideas in the day and time I am writing this. What I write here is not perfect, and there is plenty of room to revise and improve this piece. However seeing that this will be the first of many texts I write and publish, it seems fitting that it shows the current state and quality of my writing. And will serve to show the improvement and evolution of my writing over time. Not only in just the words or the piece as a whole itself but in the process I take to write and publish. It will be interesting to see if I develop more sophisticated/polished writing practices over time.

Quick note for any employers/recruiters: I do not write code this way and I am much more thorough in my code reviews and development practices with software.

There are other ideas I'd like to discuss related to writing, such as the way people come to dislike it due to school or work, or the stress about perfectionism and judgment of expressing oneself to the world. However, in the interest of not having this text be too long, I will save those ideas for a future piece. Also, I feel that this text gives a good introduction to my personality and writing style which I hope resonates with some of you.

It's also likely there are ideas here that you may disagree with. In regard to that, I am happy that there is potential for discourse, as writing that is completely agreeable to all is likely boring and not of much interest/value.

If you have read this whole piece, I truly appreciate your time and attention. I hope that reading this has inspired you to think more deeply or in new ways. I hope that it sparks conversation and thought between you and the people around you. And most importantly I hope that you think about writing and sharing your own stories and ideas with the world.