How to write more?

Why write more?

Writing helps me think better, and that has been my primary motivation to write. But most of my writing ends up happening close to a deadline; it ends up being a speed writing exercise rather than a tool for improving my thinking with the leisure to entertain different ideas.

Moreover, in spite of all the learning and problem-solving the past couple of years, I haven't managed to write much about it, and that's frustrating. This is an attempt to figure out why.

This post captured what I've been feeling for a while now.

Compression Progress

Compression Progress is a framework for understanding subjective experiences like novelty, curiosity, creativity, etc. It argues that many aspects of human perception and behavior can be explained by a simple principle: the drive to improve the efficiency of data compression.

Applied to Writing

The framework can be applied to writing as well. When you write, you are compressing your thoughts into a written form. But you want to do it at a stage where you have enough information and understanding to make it interesting, but not too late when you've compressed all the information when it all seems obvious.

Too early

This is the beginning of your research; you know something interesting is going on, but you haven't yet figured it out. You don't have enough information. This is when you should research more; else, you'll end up short of content.

Too late

And you've understood the problem, solved it, and it's no longer interesting. You feel like that was all pretty obvious. You've compressed all the information, and you're left with very little interesting content to write about. You feel like writing is a waste of time.

The sweet spot

is when you have enough information and understanding, which makes you curious and excited about the topic. You’re close to solving it, but not quite there yet. This is when compression is at its least. This is when you should write. You'll have a lot of interesting things to say without it feeling like wasting time writing obvious things.