Earlier this spring, I wrote Write it Down (WID) part one – https://talino.blog/?p=178
As Thanksgiving comes around (in the US at least), so do year-end reflections, whether it be for work or personal reasons. As my memory seems to get hazier these days (I learned brain fog can be a symptom…), again the importance of making notes to self regularly.
- Capture the significance of events while in the moment.
- As time goes on, people forget the impact, the details, that happened during that time.
The faintest pencil is better than the sharpest memory. – Chinese proverb
- Remember why plans were made.
- We often make plans with current thinking in mind. As time goes on before fruition of those plans, many changes can happen and we often question whether the plan is still wise and why we decided on it in the first place.
Interestingly enough, Socrates argued against writing – https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-1/socrates-on-the-forgetfulness-that-comes-with-writing
And that’s where the importance of dialogue comes in. Written words won’t replace dialogue. In the age of GenAI, where almost anything can be had in written format instantaneously and give a false sense of understanding, it is the human mind that still needs to better understand through dialogue with others.
SOCRATES: You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting. The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true of written words. You’d think they were speaking as if they had some understanding, but if you question anything that has been said because you want to learn more, it continues to signify just that very same thing forever. When it has once been written down, every discourse roams about everywhere, reaching indiscriminately those with understanding no less than those who have no business with it, and it doesn’t know to whom it should speak and to whom it should not. And when it is faulted and attacked unfairly, it always needs its father’s support; alone, it can neither defend itself nor come to its own support.
Additional reading: https://makeitnew.io/ux-socrates-and-the-socratic-method-b7f5634d973a
