"Writing teaches you to develop the ability to understand," emphasized Hannah Arendt in a 1964 interview with German journalist Günter Gaus.
This phrase made me reflect. When you write here on Stacker News — or when you try to write, even in an amateurish way, because not all of us are writers — when you attempt to formulate your thoughts, you are simultaneously cultivating the ability to think. The process of writing requires you to think, to think logically, so that the text you're writing makes sense and has logical continuity.
According to the Socratic method—the so-called maieutic method—the flow of a conversation, especially when structured in a question-and-answer format, enhances the art of reasoning, bringing to the surface truths we didn't know we possessed, truths hidden in some dark corner of our memory.
As a result, when someone tries to write, they are doing themselves a great favor because they are giving themselves the opportunity to organize their thoughts, refine them, and formulate them accurately and reasonably.
Stacker News is an excellent opportunity for all of us. An excellent opportunity to practice the art of writing and, as a result, to cultivate the art of thinking. By thinking, we come to understand things better, and the learning process becomes easier.
What do Stackers think?