A Place to Write

Finally, a space to write. No, I'm not a writer, but I've always loved the sense of clarity that comes when I start writing. Still, I've never made it a real habit, mostly because, like many people, I often don't know what to prioritize. I think we sometimes avoid confronting our thoughts or the truth. We just want to escape, or keep ourselves busy so we don't have to think. This isn't the worst way to cope, whether we're aware of it or not.

In my case, as my girlfriend often points out, it might be because I'm a bit of a perfectionist. This is a tricky flaw. Life isn't perfect, and what matters is just moving forward. The 80/20 principle applies here. I still need to make more progress and keep working on this.

So I've tried lots of setups: Notion, Medium, pen-and-paper journals. But I think I've finally found the right balance, simple and effective, using Obsidian and Next.js to publish what I write. Publishing, I've realized, gives me just enough extra motivation to keep going.

Writing may slow you down in the short term, but it helps you in the long run. It helps you truly understand ideas and figure out whether you've really understood them. If your writing is original, if it genuinely comes from you, and you share it with others, even accidentally, it can have a compounding effect over time.

One of my strengths, or perhaps obsessions, is this: I want to leave something behind. I want to document what I learn along the way, so that others (and future me) can benefit from it. Many of the mistakes I've made could have been avoided simply by pausing to reflect. Instead, I often jumped into action (which is better than doing nothing), but sometimes that action took me far from the best path I could have taken. git a

Like most of the articles I'll be writing, these will be living documents, since many themes are recurring and interconnected. So, how can we improve our writing? Reading definitely plays the biggest role, but it's not the only factor. My personal approach involves using tools like Cursor to maintain the flow of ideas without getting stuck on perfection.

Why Writing Matters

Writing is more than just putting words on a page. It's a tool for thinking, for clarifying what you believe, and for discovering what you didn't know you knew.

Having a dedicated place to write matters because it allows you to share knowledge that might help someone else tomorrow, while also preserving insights for your future self. The act of writing forces you to organize your thoughts, and over time, this clarity extends to how you speak and how you think. When your brain is overloaded with information, writing helps you sort through it, make connections, and find clarity in the confusion.

You learn by doing and making errors, but if you don't reflect on those errors, if you don't write them down and process them, the lessons don't stick. And if you only learn from your own mistakes, you're limiting yourself. Learning from others' mistakes, documented and shared, accelerates your growth.

A personal website or blog isn't just output. It's something that grows in value over time. Each piece of writing connects to others, and over time, a body of work emerges that reflects who you are and what you've learned.

Writing as a Journey

It's true that traveling, exploring new places, and meeting new people give you experiences you couldn't get otherwise. But the most important, beautiful, and meaningful journeys are the ones we take in our minds. We do this through creativity, courage, knowledge, and curiosity. Then we share what we've discovered, where we've been, and whether that journey might be useful to others. Or we share simply because going to new places, whether physical or internal, is always better when shared with others.

Writing amplifies this impact. It makes the path you walk and the places you explore more concrete. It can create opportunities that might have otherwise remained closed.

Travel is not only about physical places. Some people go around the world but gain less than those who have traveled to only a few places. The difference is that the second group has journeyed much deeper within themselves.

This Place as a Compass

This repository, this vault, is the place I want to return to every time I don't know where to restart, what to do, or what to prioritize. It's where my knowledge lives, my mental models, my history, and it grows over time. When there's a question, an issue, or any situation that needs consideration, this space takes context into account. It becomes a decision-making tool, not just a storage system.

The value isn't just in what I've written, but in how it all connects. Over time, patterns emerge. Ideas that seemed separate start to relate. And when I'm uncertain, I can search through what I've learned, what I've thought about before, and find direction. It's a living system that helps me navigate not just writing, but life itself.

In the meantime, I'm noting below some Paul Graham essays on why writing matters.

Other interesting articles on writing and thinking: