I imagine you're someone who finds honor in the truth. If you are, then you would benefit from writing. Here are two things you get from writing: 1) it forces you to clarify your thoughts, and 2) it enables you to create new thoughts. Writing is a very effective means to discovering powerful truths.
I think you understand the power of the truth, which is why you're uncomfortable being exposed to it too regularly.
If that is because you have learnt something, great!
So many amazing people have written that they actively seek finding out where they are wrong: they revel in it, because they recognise that they have become smarter by understanding their own mistakes.
If your opinions are static, then you are not thinking. 99% of what we know is wrong (subtly or dramatically).
That's interesting, though. I rarely change my opinions, but I noticed one thing - I often say "I don't know about this subject enough to have strong opinion".
I feel like if I change your opinions frequently, these opinions weren't built on good enough basis.
How do you hold an opinion if it has no basis that can persist over time? I personally imagine for reading one's own writing, just like listening to my own singing, the exact "pain points" you feel would also be felt by any audience and therefore are the most valuable feedback you could possibly receive...
It's mostly due to learning more things and having different interests. Sometimes it's a change of opinion, other times it's more like "is this even worth talking about" or "I would phrase things differently if I was writing this now".
> "I would phrase things differently if I was writing this now"
This is the point that matters most, and I would pay careful attention to and hone this instinct. It is the one that would truly reduce the "pain" of consuming your own efforts. Otherwise, I am not sure what to say, it is of course possible to write for different reasons and with different efforts and expectations, so I would not fret too much about how much you "care" about something over time, just how much it interests you to read your own points about it
Not the person you replied to, but it's usually more of a shift in desired tone/writing style than just a general objective evaluation.
For example I can write a post and feel the tone is good, then come back to it and find it too informal, not expert-y enough. Then I'll write a new article and some time later find it too academic and not engaging enough.
This is often described by authors. They sometimes suggest letting the writing rest a while. Come back to it a while later and adjust it into a final draft. This advice is often talking about longer form material, like books, but I wonder if it’s similar to what you’re experiencing.
If so, maybe it’s that your drafts lack something because you’re just trying to get all the words out.
People learn new facts about topics and change their minds all the time. A 5 year old may be of the opinion that eating candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a well balanced meal until they have their first candy "hangover".
> People learn new facts about topics and change their minds all the time
I view it as inappropriate to put pen to paper to publish about something I've only put passing thought and research into, so this point is a bit facile.
I learn by writing about things in detail because it causes me to think through them. So, I’m the opposite, sometimes, where I write about things I’m not an expert in. I also publish a blog, so I do it in public fairly frequently.
Right, and in such a context you know what you don't know, so you're not asserting facts (equivalently expressing opinions) that will change in the short or medium term because those things which are in flux can easily be pointed to as such.
This is really my point - "opinions changing" = initial conclusions were drawn with inappropriate extrapolation. Why would you write about things you hastily extrapolated and never verified?
> I personally imagine for reading one's own writing, just like listening to my own singing, the exact "pain points" you feel would also be felt by any audience and therefore are the most valuable feedback you could possibly receive...
Curious if you've actually received the exact same feedback from someone else listening to you sing vs your own thinking? Realize that might just be a stylized example. But I'm a drummer, and over many years of playing in front of people I've observed that they didn't notice the "paint points" I noticed. Lots of these things are relative right?
> I view it as inappropriate to put pen to paper to publish about something I've only put passing thought and research into, so this point is a bit facile.
Do you draft while you think and research? What's your process?
I think you understand the power of the truth, which is why you're uncomfortable being exposed to it too regularly.