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#8: Writing is thinking, weak passport problems, and economic growth
No amount of organising beats writing when it comes to synthesising new information
I consume a lot of media. On a regular day, my feed reader pushes the latest gadget reviews from The Verge, updates on Southeast Asia from Dari Mulut Ke Mulut, or my Kindle asks me to finish reading The Montessori Toddler, along with all the other books in my ever-growing reading list.
I tell myself that this isn’t mindless consumption. I imagine myself quoting a book I read 2 years ago, or relating some tidbit in a newsletter to a problem I’m facing at work, or applying some sage parenting advice while playing with my daughter.
This wasn’t really happening, though. There was something missing in the process — I wasn’t taking the time to coalesce my thoughts from amorphous human brain file format to concrete written prose. Worse, the more time I spent without writing anything, the more I tried to keep things in my head, taking up cycles and leaving me scatterbrained.
#7: Digital gardening didn't work for me, getting serious about writing, and my new role
Welcome back to what is essentially an annual newsletter 🥲. In this issue, find out why digital gardening didn’t work for me, how I want to own my content, and my new gig combining accounting and data engineering.
Obsidian’s graph view was very fun to look at, but I quickly realised that it wasn’t going to really help with my writing.
A data team's product is decisions
Photo by Franki Chamaki (Unsplash)
Making your data team’s main product decisions, as opposed to reports, models, or engineered systems, is a great way of communicating the value of the team internally and externally.