Write to think, don't think to write

The best way to increase your capacity to think is to actually do the thinking. And so that's where I see writing. If you're able to write things clearly, you're able to think through things clearly.

You activate a different part of your brain when you talk. You actually activate more of your brain when you talk than when you think or write. So thinking activates the least amount of your brain. Writing is a little bit better, but talking activates a whole different region of your brain.

At the end of the day, the seeking of the truth involves the seeking of a deep sense of self-understanding, and if you can get into the daily practice of being able to sit down with pen and paper and write to yourself, to ask yourself questions, to really sit there and evaluate the thoughts that are running through your head, it is possible for somebody to reach some state of bliss or enlightenment or some real spiritual awakening entirely on their own with just pen and paper and a quiet room.

You can't cut to the chase unless you know what the chase is. You can't unbury the lead unless you know what the lead is. And so that I found is the bottleneck to being concise. It's actually not really being clear of what you are thinking, that's what's leading to being long-winded.

Fewer words means every word is 10 pounds in weight instead of one, and that means that the decisions you're making, the trade offs are far more intentional, and in the case of great, if you say something is great because we're going to deliver something in two hours versus Amazon's great because the selection is very wide, the implications on strategy are completely different.