How to start?

How does one start writing? I do read a variety of books, usually roughly one every 1-2 weeks, sometimes with some further research thrown in-between. I keep track of books I’d like to read again, and tend to take extensive notes on the subjects discussed, usually in combination with some flash cards. So my first thought was: let’s combine a few notes into a topic to write about. Being who I am, my desired quality output for this quickly got close to what you’d expect from a scientific paper or even thesis. But what value am I adding when I essentially re-write a scientific book or paper I’ve read? And why would I even assume you can’t do further research yourself if I throw an idea at you you find interesting? During a recent train ride, I got hit in the face by chapter 11 from Atomic Habits. In this chapter, James Clear describes an experiment Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, performed on his photography students. He divided them into two groups and said he would grade one group solely based on quantity, the other on quality. Meaning that one group had to simply submit 100 pics to get a straight A, the other had to submit a single one that’d be graded by quality. I am a person who likes planning ahead, “honing my axe” before I start chopping. But the results of this experiment came to me as quite a surprise. The quantity-group, with the students where quality didn’t even matter, ended up with better pictures than the quality-group, where only quality mattered. This has been attributed to the repetition and experimenting the quantity-group did while taking dozens of pictures. I felt quite stupid, as I’ve been driving in quality-lane for a long time now, assuming it’d be the better option. It certainly will be in some cases, as you wouldn’t want a surgeon to follow a quantity-based approach, where only the number of surgeries within a day matter and the quality of the result doesn’t. But for writing on my own blog, quantity is the way to go.

Quality will remain of importance – I don’t want to scare you off with cognitive garbage – but I won’t aim for a scientific gold standard. After all, I’m not aiming to become a scientist in doing this. I’m aiming to become a writer, so that’s what I’ll do. Adding a bit more of a personal touch might not be so bad either. I do like the personal stories of the authors I read, so why shouldn’t I share my own?

So, I’ve been reading in Atomic Habits. Why? Take a guess. I’d like to work on my habits. It’s not that they’re particularly bad (although there are some), but I’d like to keep improving as a person. And among many other things, one of the skills I want to improve is writing. So, that’s what I’ll be doing. But I don’t want to write for the sake of writing. I want to provide value, by sharing interesting ideas, adding my own experiences and guidance whenever possible. In the growing flow of information, I want to build a place where things stick. In the river of posts and pop-ups, let me be that calm place on the shore. Easy to reach, yet with more depth than you might assume. You get it: sediment.