Here are some quotes on writing that I've gathered over the years and found inspiring: > Richard Feynman once had a visitor in his office, a historian who wanted to interview him. When he spotted Feynman’s notebooks, he said how delighted he was to see such “wonderful records of Feynman’s thinking.” "No, no!” Feynman protested. “They aren’t a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process. I actually did the work on the paper. > > Sonke Ahrens, [How to Take Smart Notes](https://twitter.com/jaltma/status/1181659200268591104) > It is impossible to think without writing; at least it is impossible in any sophisticated or networked fashion > > Niklas Luhmann, [Communicating with Slip Boxes](http://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes) > What many people underestimate is that being a good writer, whether that is through emails or through documents, allows you to be more impactful. I see many engineers ignore that skill. You might be proud of your code. You should also be equally proud of the craft of writing, it is just as important. ... Writing is a highly underestimated skill for engineers. > > Urs Hölzle, Google employee #8, from [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6530173230102122496/) > Writing this blog has been super helpful for me professionally and I really like it. It takes a lot of time (apparently I’ve written 200 blog posts now???), but the cool thing is that once I’ve written those 200 blog posts they’re there forever! People can just keep reading them and maybe learning interesting things! > > I also think it’s extremely fun and interesting when regular people (not Programming Wizards) just write about their regular work and what they’re learning right now or what they wish they’d known in the past. > > Julia Evans, [advice for aspiring tech bloggers](https://jvns.ca/blog/2016/05/22/how-do-you-write-blog-posts/) > If you are trying to decide between a few people to fill a position, always hire the better writer. It doesn’t matter if that person is a designer, programmer, marketer, salesperson, or whatever, the writing skills will pay off. Effective, concise writing and editing leads to effective, concise code, design, emails, instant messages, and more. > Writing is the most scalable professional networking activity. Stay home, don't go to events/conferences, and just put ideas down. > > Andrew Chen, [10 years of professional blogging – what I’ve learned](https://andrewchen.co/professional-blogging/) > > That’s because being a good writer is about more than words. Good writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They know what to omit. They think clearly. And those are the qualities you need. > > Basecamp, [Getting Real](https://basecamp.com/gettingreal/08.6-wordsmiths) > You should write because when you know that you’re going to write, it changes the way you live. > > James Somers, [More people should write](http://jsomers.net/blog/more-people-should-write) > The brain is no place for serious thinking. If you're thinking about something important and complicated, write it down. > > Jack Altman, [Twitter](https://twitter.com/jaltma/status/1181659200268591104) > Engineers often underestimate the importance of writing well. Invest in this skill to scale your ability to get your message to others, becoming a more influential engineer. > > Gergely Orosz, [Undervalued Software Engineering Skills: Writing Well](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/on-writing-well/) > I think it's far more important to write well than most people realize. Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them. If you're bad at writing and don't like to do it, you'll miss out on most of the ideas writing would have generated. > > Paul Graham, [Writing, Briefly](http://www.paulgraham.com/writing44.html) > Writing down what one thinks and feels, one’s desires and reactions, brings about an inward awareness, the cooperation of the unconscious with the conscious, and this in turn leads to integration and understanding > Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Book of Life > To write well, you need first to know what you are talking about. Thus, you have to do your research. ... Then you have to be able to organize your argument, at the level of the word, the sentence, the paragraph and the essay itself. If you can do that, you can organize your thoughts and, in consequence, your brain. Then you can help organize other brains, and other structures. > > Jordan Peterson, from [Quora](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-necessary-skills-for-21st-century-students-and-future-leaders/answer/Jordan-B-Peterson) And here are some posts making a point _for writing_: - [Why You Should Start a Blog Right Now - Alexey Guzey](https://guzey.com/personal/why-have-a-blog/) - [Power of Writing - Jordan Peterson ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfDOoADCfkg) - [How I Motivate Myself to Write - The Pragmatic Engineer](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/writing-motivation/amp/)