[kelnos]

The biggest con to thinking in public is that your words will be there for anyone to see. Some of the people who see it will have very little context about who you are and what you are talking about, and will inevitably misinterpret (possibly intentionally) what you say, and get upset with you for it.

You may not care about this. Certainly, worrying about what random strangers think about you is a waste of time. But unfortunately, things you say online can affect your real life in surprising, unexpected ways sometimes.

Something today that you think is completely innocuous might be a hot-button issue tomorrow.

I mostly stopped participating in social media years ago, but I still comment in a few places like HN. Sometimes I do worry that something I say will come back to haunt me later. This is never an issue if you think in private.

Now, because you asked for pros, a potentially big benefit of thinking in public is that you can get feedback from a wide variety of people, especially those who have different upbringings, experiences, and values, and their perspective can be valuable, depending on what you're thinking/talking about. Does that outweigh the con I mentioned? Up to each individual to decide for themselves.