Writing to learn
This is an essential book for everyone who wants to write clearly about any subject and use writing as a means of learning.
Stats for nerds
5recommend
11mentions
8people
2010–2026years
73% recommend18% neutral9% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- The author articulates perfectly what I think too. I’d recommend for everyone to read Writing to Learn by William Zinsser. It’s an incredible book showing that you can learn anything by writing about it.
With an LLM doing all the writing for you, you learn close to nothing.
- This is not true for at least me.
Let's say, I am making something concrete by putting ideas, thoughts, knowledge into paper. While doing it, I am finding gaps and mistakes and finding opportunities to correct them. But it is not limited to 'correction', it also opens newer dimensions and perspectives- ones that previously didn't exist in my conscious mind.
I consider writing as a tool of thinking. Another tool is brainstorming with a group, or any group discussion in general. These amend to your thoughts, make the existing ones more solid, and opens new direction, and unravels connections previously not accessible.
Read this essay by Paul Graham: Putting Ideas into Words [0]. And also refer to his other essays on writing.
There is also a great book by Paul Zissner: Writing to Learn. I suggest this book to people.
Writing, when done while learning works akin to teaching- one of the most crucial steps in so-called Feynman Technique of learning.
- I found that the book "Writing to Learn" by William Zinsser was excellent in convening this process. As noted in the book the author advocated for more writing to be included in all subjects.
<https://goodreads.com/book/show/585474.Writing_to_Learn> - 1. The Pragmatic Programmer.
2. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer.
3. Diffusion of Innovations.
4. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.
5. Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash.
6. Writing to Learn.
7. On Writing Well.
8. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware.
9. Thinking In Systems: A Primer.
10. The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company.
- If you haven’t read William Zinsser “Writing to learn” you’re doing yourself a disservice
- “Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know—and what we don’t know—about whatever we’re trying to learn.”
― William Knowlton Zinsser, Writing to Learn
One of the books that got me into writing for myself.
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