Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bayindirh 358 days ago
Brain dumps are bit more nuanced than that. After finishing the dump, you can work on it. Correct the errors if you want and analyze what came out and ponder on it.

I argue that brain mechanisms are different for speaking, typing and writing.

Speaking with intent is very powerful, indeed because hearing what you say is very different than an inner dialogue, but from my experience writing and typing has a greater power for dislodging what's in the nooks and crannies of your mind.

I can speak my mind, but that path is generally more filtered and shallower than sitting and writing what I have in my mind. Typing is a bit more inferior, but comparable.

The trick in writing/typing is it allows "blurts". You dump the initial 10-20 items at a quick pace. Then you start to slow down. This is where magic happens, because while writing/typing you experience small "a-ha" moments and continue writing things triggered by the initial "burst". This small blurts which drive the rest for an hour or so, and you feel tired but relaxed, because now you have a blueprint of what "keeps you up" is in front of you.

This is not equally possible with talking + auto-transcribing, because brain needs a different pace for that dumping process to work.

1 comments

>I can speak my mind, but that path is generally more filtered and shallower than sitting and writing what I have in my mind.

Are you suggesting that this experience of yours applies to everyone or that it applies to every context (alone vs not alone)?

Nothing stops you from voice record 10-20 items and stopping or pausing the recording. The idea that talking plus transcribing does not let you do what you do when typing seems odd and likely not based on actual facts. Stephen Hawkings did not seem to struggle to do highly intellectual work without typing