(2022-02-26) Goldberg40 We Need Quality

Rika Goldberg #40: We need quality. Since making another attempt at building a note-taking system, I have noticed that I am becoming more scrupulous of my writing.

On the one hand, this is bad. As I question my thoughts more, and seek evidence from the large body of information that swims around the Internet and on my bookshelf, my productivity is suffering.

On the other hand, I believe that my writing is becoming more quality.

This past week, instead of creating writing output for my project, I spent a lot of time making the sausage. Instead of typing words into a Google document, I spent hours each day in Obsidian (a note-taking software) setting up metadata for my notes.

You can think of what I’m doing like setting up a personal mini Wiki.

Like computers, the human brain also builds up garbage that needs to be recycled, because memory space is finite, not infinite.

After writing my first short story, (for the short story series I am working on), I learned something interesting: I threw out a lot of my writing

About halfway through writing my second short story, the one I am currently working on, I realized I had a problem: I was not fleshing out my thinking. Instead, I was awkwardly stumbling over the same idea

I noticed that I was stuck

What I have realized is this: as more writing opportunities take shape, (which I am already experiencing), I need a system to help me produce quality writing, and to produce it efficiently.

So this why I am making an investment in my most precious asset: my time - to build a note-taking system that is sustainable and resilient

My job as a writer is to help people feel and imagine different possibilities so that all of us, together, can shape the future and move in a positive direction.