Saturday, November 20, 2021
Writing is one of the most difficult tasks and it doesn’t get easier with time. You know how things work, you can feel it, but communicating it to others by means of mere words is something that is very difficult. The reader always sees the final product, they don’t see the first draft or the writer pulling his hair while editing that draft. You may find your tricks, you may enjoy doing it, but writing is a pretty difficult task per se. People have this notion that the writer already knows about the subject they are writing and they have everything figured out. They just need to pen it down. But I believe this is never the case, neither for first time writers nor for professional writers. It is only when you start writing your brain comes up with different ideas you can use, the brain starts remembering articles that you read that you can link and you start making sense of things. Writing is a form of clarifying your own thoughts. Most people have this notion that writing is for others, which is partially true. But there is a concept of selfish writing which means clarifying your own thoughts. By writing a blog or a novel, the writer learns as much as the reader. Nobody has everything in their mind. This is not how it works. When Morgan Housel authored The Psychology of Money, he hadn’t figured out all the 19 stories at once. He learned about different stories while writing and connected the dots.
“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life as well.Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art."
Initially while starting out with The Passion Pad, I used to think about what will I even write? Everything I knew was already out via me on some or the other platform. I thought I will be out of ideas soon. But later I realised this is not how it works. If you can’t write about anything, this means you know everything. Which is obviously not true. Broaden your horizon, learn about new things, simply them, and write them down in order to clarify your thoughts. With the information that is out in public, trust me, you will never fall short of topics to write about for a million years.
"Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences."
On 17th of this month, I was travelling in Delhi metro and I thought a harsh pandemic and a long lockdown would have given ample time to people to ponder upon details which are not really necessary. But yes, I had come up with these subtle details, or let me call them as hacks, even before the pandemic began. All thanks to my unnecessary observational skills. Here are some tips and tricks for you -
I know no one told this to you before that Delhi metro has 6-8 coaches and it is NOT mandatory (emphasis on NOT) for you to sit in the coach opposite to the escalators/lift. If you ever happen to notice, you will find that the coach that is opposite to the escalators/lift is always the most crowded. If you happen to plot a graph of number of people v/s coach number, it will follow a normal distribution. With the central tendency being the coach that is opposite to the lift. Please, if you are reading this and happen to travel in Delhi metro ever, please take the pain of moving on the platform and occupy a seat in the last coach, which btw is the least crowded. And I think human biases have a lot of role to play here. What do you think?
Again, I know no one told this to you before, but you are NOT, I repeat, you are NOT hungry while waiting at the metro station. You have had a heavy breakfast at home, and your body won’t fly if you take in some extra calories. Yes, it may behave abnormally. I think the sales of food shops at the metro station or at the airport for that matter does not depend upon hungry people. Rarely do people come at the station hungry. But the sales depend mostly on people who are unable to control their taste buds and ghrelin, the hormone responsible for making us feel hungry. Save that money and buy bitcoin please. (Not a financial advice)
I have many such hacks, thanks to the observational skills. Let me know if you want to know more about them.
See you next Saturday, until then have a great weekend :)
Cheers!
Some things that you may find interesting-
Article: All behaviour makes sense: A spectrum approach
Video: The Big Misconception About Electricity
Podcast: The One Percent Show - Monika Halan
Song I am listening to: Alone by Alan Walker
Thought of the week: In this world of effortless likes and retweeting, it has never been easy to showcase your thoughts. However, the efforts required to actually bring a difference hasn't changed much.
Here are the last three posts if you were too occupied to read them: