Why Do I Keep Writing

This blog has been going for more than three years now. Look in the Archives! The fact that it does not generate revenue nor does it have a high flow of readers on average, why do I still write?

Well, it has a lot to do with my inquisitive nature and my approach to learning.

Quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, “Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people.”

No, I do not claim to be a great mind. However, when I study current events, observe people, read books, and reflect on my own experience, my primary intention is to study the main ideas that drive the occurrence of the events and the behaviors of people. Put another way, I want to understand the underlying trends — cultural trend, social trend, mental trend, and what not.

A crude example being that, there are many such trends that underlie the occurrence of our “financial crisis”, as oppose to some CEOs claiming that it had to happen and that somehow it suddenly happened… so when I read and learn about the financial crisis, that is what I look for, instead of focusing on numbers, or the names.

Or another quick example, what are the fundamental belief systems that heavily influence behaviors of Americans, Islams, Chinese, and what not?

Therefore, writing is kind of my process of digestion of information to understand those trends. When I seem to have read and gain “enough” (completely subjective) information, I turn the blurry ideas that I have and what I “vaguely” know into words with the requirement that I need do my best to explain them quite simply.

On the other hand, I may or may not have to do more reading and research for better understanding about details of the events and the people. Oh, the hours of reading and searching online… I can say with confidence that I probably had read more than 99% of population, especially becuase I read both English and Chinese. Anyways…

In the end, I do my best to write and express my understanding and opinions about the main ideas with words at the moment of writing but meanwhile, I am actually integrating my experience, knowledge, and information into me — instead of just memorizing facts and data. Because otherwise, information, events, and people are just scattered dots… and I want to connect the dots. That is the fun part!

Additionally, and hopefully, the occasional readers who come across here enjoy my words and the sharing of such ideas.

Now, maybe you will say what I write and had written make no sense sometimes (or always, hah!), and my answer will be yes! Indeed I may have written non-sense. That is, I find the understanding of main ideas and trends as something not entirely presentable and expressible by mere words.

That takes me to the idea that, to understand main ideas in life is to understand life, so not to be easily surprised and frightened, which is what happens when we get bogged down by details.

That has to do with how best for us to learn and that shall be the topic of next post.