> [!infobox] <s class="aside-in"><em>mentioned in 5 evergreens</em></s> #### [[Writing is a catalyst of understanding]] > [!summary] > > This is > explained by:: [[Good friction causes the brain to engage]]. > Writing requires you to engage with the content on a higher level by introducing positive [[friction]]. I engage in two major kinds of [[writing]] 1. Writing to enable idea generation 2. Writing to clarify my thought process These are both integral parts of [[understanding]]. Connections are how we remember things, and insights are usually connections between ideas. My thought process usually has gaps where I think I know what's coming next. Writing forces me to fill those gaps and find the best path to understanding. Writing also enables idea generation by effectively letting you "know" more things. Often when I write stuff down in my notes, I already have a pretty good idea of what I think of them, but that idea might fade. Writing it down, especially (and possibly only) in [[evergreen notes]] lets that idea grow over time and provide insights over time. This is why there is a difference between [[spaced repetition]] and [[incremental writing]] for me, even though I write during both. [[Incremental writing]] is a time to fill holes and clarify understanding, but spaced repetition is a time to connect thoughts and generate insights. This is how:: [[Evergreen notes help us bridge the gap between knowledge and understanding]]. ### <hr class="footnote"/> **Status**:: #EVER/GREEN *edited 7:35 AM - July 08, 2022* **Topics**:: [[understanding]], [[learning]] #### References > ![[10_Sources/articles - Create a Zettelkasten for Your Notes to Improve Thinking and Writing • Zettelkasten Method#^305310566]] - ![[Andy Matuschak's Evergreen Notes#^67fb4a]] - some people can't think unless they are writing - This is because [[Humans try really hard to avoid understanding their mistakes]], [[writing]] provides good friction that allows us to address our confusion #TO/EXPLORE/RESEARCH > On a related note, I think the process of realizing what’s relevant for a particular difficult problem is also another way to say “that’s an insight”. I’ve read a bit into the Insight Problem Solving literature, and insight can be thought of as a representational change that leads to solutions, which is maybe a more rigorous way to say that “you suddenly notice what’s relevant to the problem at hand”. > > There are two (among several) widely known mechanisms that lead to insights - the kind of insights you can study in labs through nine-dots problems and the like, they are: constraint relaxation and chunk decomposition. > > Making notes is, in a sense, externalizing representations, which means you can better detect constraints that are being imposed unnecessarily. Interconnected notes is a way to facilitate chunk decomposition, because an Evergreen note is similar to a chunk in that you can decompose it into other chunks which can help reconfigure your representation - or how you look at a problem. I think that’s how practicing PKM can facilitate the processes that yield insights. > > - [What has your PKM actually help you achieve? - #12 by minhthanh3145 - Knowledge management - Obsidian Forum](https://forum.obsidian.md/t/what-has-your-pkm-actually-help-you-achieve/30249/12?u=abopp)