Clear Communication

In September, Tim Cook posted a note to Apple’s website which served as a landing page to Apple’s overall security initiative. The letter was concisely and clearly written, and as a result, Tim’s message was communicated effectively - that Apple cares deeply about keeping your data secure.

In a subsequent Daring Fireball post, John Gruber remarked:

I say clear writing is a sign of clear thinking.

That line has stuck with me. Everyday for 4 months. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Since writing is a form of communication, it follows that clear communication is a sign of clear thinking. Which is precisely why I have started this blog.

I worry that I don’t verbally communicate what I am thinking as well as I could. I often times will have a conversation with a person, only to later realize that what I said did not match up well with what I intended to communicate. As a result, I failed to persuade that person of my idea, or evoke in them some desired emotion. I strongly believe that writing is an excellent way of organizing the thoughts swimming around in your head because it forces you to think about them in a structured way. It is my hope that through writing, I will be forced to think through my own thoughts in a structured way on a regular basis. Over time, my aim is to become better at structuring my thinking internally so that I can communicate it verbally.

I already have a list of 30 or so possible ideas for posts. They include projects I’m working on, things I’m learning, work culture, products I care about, and other various miscellany. Right now, my goal is to publish one post per week for twelve weeks. After twelve weeks, I will reevaluate to see where things are, if I’m enjoying the writing, and whether or not I should increase or decrease the frequency.