but first, we write it down

Nothing gets done if it isn’t written down. It isn’t even real.

There are stories of Amazon being a writing first culture. Bezos demanding 6-page written summaries before meeting.

Basecamp/37Signals has a writing culture. It’s as if ideas aren’t real until they’re written down and shared.

Writing these notes (like this email) every day forces me to think through a bunch of seemingly little things. Almost every day, I surprise myself with a change in how I think about this or that.

Writing forces clarity. Though I suspect some of my writing here isn’t very clear, even on the days when it feels hard to put a sentence together I come away from a writing session feeling one of two ways:

• I know myself better

• I know my business better

Spending even 15 minutes a day on writing forces some thinking time that otherwise might not happen. It’s forced me to slow down and not jump on fun little ideas that would be a waste of time.

Write it down. Share it. Get feedback. Keep going.

Peter

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