Originally written on substack

On a cloudy morning in Florida, I was thinking about yet another mental model while I am taking my shower. Towards the completion of my bath, a question emerged in my mind. Why am I not writing enough these days? I was actively writing and publishing for a while on Notion: https://thyaravind.notion.site. I maintained it low-key by making my blog not very discoverable like those on Medium or Substack and I did that for a good reason. I wanted to write as candidly as possible and not let external expectations or the need for perfection paralyse me.

You might wonder, why was I publishing my thoughts or works in the first place if I am not enabling wider reception of my work like on Substack? Writing for publishing involves writing descriptively about a mental model or an idea to make it understandable by fellow humans. After publishing a few articles, I noticed several benefits during and after the process of writing for publishing, irrespective of audience size.

1. Simulating as if I am explaining the concept or my understanding to someone while writing

   1. Triggered more useful thinking and scenarios.

   2. Pushed me to conduct further research, talk to people to strengthen my writing.

2. It didn’t take much time for me to realize that revisiting well constructed and articulated articles is much better than searching through my messy notes on Notion for that particular concept or mental model.

3. I failed miserably to write well articulated and structured notes for myself in my private Notion and even if I did succeed occasionally, it missed the simulation part of me explaining the concept to an external agent.

4. Writing is a great topping to insert into my day burger to make it non monotonous and delicious with coding as the only other topping.

Coming back to my question of why am I not writing enough these days, it’s not that I am running out of ideas or not having new experiences to share. I am still writing a lot in my private Notion but I am not publishing enough by making them readable by fellow humans. Not having enough time was a major challenge for a while as I was working on side projects at Blank Labs alongside my day job. Now that I quit my 9-to-5 job to work fully at Blank Labs, I have just enough time to write and publish some useful and interesting articles regularly.

But why moving to Substack or publishing for wider audience? I noticed that the feedback that I received from people in my closed circle who read my blog, is a great motivating factor to write more and write consistently. The discussions that my articles triggered among my companions were helpful to refine my thoughts or trigger useful thinking.

So, here I am… starting this new newsletter/series titled Useful Mental Models, a series of articles about the unique mental models which I happened to conceive over the past few years to navigate my own life in a better way. I have decided to develop and articulate the concepts thoroughly, and share those with potential wider audience on Substack regularly.

P.S:
I will continue to publish my writing devoid of any monetization to enable me to write as candidly and altruistically as possible.

-Ar