The purpose of books may be determined by the sum of their parts. Books bind thoughts and ideas in a package. Books are a collection of written words. Words translate and intuit meaning some intended and some unintended. You might be familiar with this from childhood.

When a or girl doesn’t do her chores, a mother will do what any mother would do and tells the child to do them or else. That sense of dread associated with “or else”, that implied negative outcome, can spur the child to get the job done. Likewise, the words that you tell yourself whether negative or positive when you wake up in the morning will shape your day. Those words that we hear or tell ourselves while captured by our subconscious may not be remembered. Written words, however, expand our capacity to remember. The physical element of words on paper (or screen) keeps the words and thoughts available for later.

Written Words

Various authors have remarked on the purpose of generating written word, of writing. Jordan Peterson argues that to be a competent player in the global dominance hierarchy we all inhibit today requires mastery of thinking and communicating. A dominance hierarchy describes the greater socio-economic sphere of influence that the internet has enabled almost everyone on the planet connected and capable of perceiving power and influence. The internet has enabled us to see how we stack up to each other – overall social standing based on personality characteristics, skills, job, engagements, social network, and reputation. Whether we like it or not with social media platforms like Instagram, seeing the stratification of lifestyles is easier than ever. (Lifestyle, though not directly correlated to value or usefulness is often a marker of status in the global hierarchy.) I’m interested in becoming useful and being congruent with my values.

A skill that translates across all domains of influence is critical thinking. Peterson would argue that writing is the best way to teach yourself and others do that. Writing is a way of externally processing thought because you can see the idea, directly challenge the idea, and shift or edit the idea until it’s a coherent argument that’s defensible. No one wants to defend a dumb idea especially when it’s their own dumb idea and they realize there are holes in the argument. You realize how fickle your own pride and arrogance can be. They can’t get you far compared to others who have mastered it. This project is my stepping away from needing to be smart and stepping toward learning to be useful.

Learning through reading and using technology to solidify lessons is something I’m also pursuing. This project is a collection of observations from experiments I’ve undertaken. One such experiment was a challenge to read a book a month and write a reflection on a lesson learned or action that I will take from reading the book starting in late 2020.

One of such books was Limitless by Jim Kwik. To learn and master a skill 10x faster, he teaches the process of “capturing and creating”. Capture the ideas in short spurts. Then, take actions to progressively solidify the knowledge with activities such as teaching others what you’re learning, using new concepts, and questioning how you can better serve others for example. Because of lessons from his book, I’ve been inspired to directly question concepts more often and capture my thoughts in an effort to really commit to what it is I’m saying and learn from this process of exposing myself to myself and others. Think of a negative feedback loop for those with engineering experience.

I’m expecting that these written words and external feedback will help me attenuate my positioning on various topics. In this series, we’ll explore not only the purpose of books but also what makes a book a good one.