The Weblog as a Second Brain
I’ve been online for twenty-five years, and during that time, I’ve seen much noteworthy content—but I forgot most of it. I will never be able to find any of these publications again. It’s the reason this site exists and why I started blogging in a more serious fashion.
A blog, as in web-log, creates a trace of anything I come across and find noteworthy. An index by topic, using tags, and time, the monthly archives, allow me to dive into previous thoughts on a topic or at a point in time.
Cory Doctorow puts it more eloquently:
[T]he blog as an annotated browser-history, like the traveler’s diaries my family kept on vacations, recording which hotels we stayed in and what they were like, where we dined and what we ate, which local attractions we visited and how we felt about them.
Like those family trip-logs, a web-log serves as more than an aide-memoire, a record that can be consulted at a later date. The very act of recording your actions and impressions is itself powerfully mnemonic, fixing the moment more durably in your memory so that it’s easier to recall in future, even if you never consult your notes.
The more important aspect of blogging, however, is writing to publish. Writing requires the author to structure incoherent and fuzzy thinking and turn into writing that conveys a message in a way others can follow.
The act of making your log-file public requires a rigor that keeping personal notes does not. Writing for a notional audience — particularly an audience of strangers — demands a comprehensive account that I rarely muster when I’m taking notes for myself.
In return, the process of writing builds a deeper understanding of and form informed opinions on the subject matter.
When I come across something I read, my caveman brain generally reacts in one of two ways: I like what I read and agree. Or I disagree. When I don’t agree with something I read, forcing myself to explore my position through writing often changes my perspective. I understand someone else’s perspective better. And even if I still disagree, at least I’ve put down words why I disagree. In either case, I end up knowing more.