Just challenged the hacker news crew to draw a bike. See my reply to the OP.
I understand how this condition might make the writing process more challenging, but I don’t think that contradicts GPs point at all.
It's harsh, but it isn't wrong, right? The reason that these states of being are considered 'disorders' is because they interfere with daily life and with tasks that other people consider to be easy.
I need to take a lot of time to edit my writing and to re-evaluate the content that I write because it is easy for me to slip into a multi-paragraph tangent. Fundamentally that happens because my thinking is not sharp/focused.
On the other hand, when I am done writing I get a feeling of great accomplishment. Like I was able to swim through the deep waters of my mind and harpoon all the good ideas. Being smart isn't worth much if you can't communicate your ideas!
i do take offense of people implying my "mind is weak" based soley on my writing skills. Yes, I know writing skills are important at communicating, but humans have seriously many skills to offer than just writing or even communicating for that matter. yet people seem to be condensing their opinion of other people into a very highlevel simplistic rule. Are we going back in time here? whats next? basing if peoples minds are weak on DNA/ race?
>I need to take a lot of time to edit my writing and to re-evaluate the content that I write because it is easy for me to slip into a multi-paragraph tangent. Fundamentally that happens because my thinking is not sharp/focused.
same here on the first part, but not because I can't focus, its because I have to juggle many train of thoughts whilst writing slowing into one stream of communication. to the point I give up on many things that i really want to say
Are you defining people as weak because you think writing is important and ignoring all other aspects of their personality?
Irrespective of creativity and intelligence you need some amount of conscientiousness to be goal oriented. That is just yourself. To direct others to do the same you need that plus excellent communication skills. There are no shortcuts or alternatives here.
Originally the quote was about sloppy thinking, not "weak" minds. You're right that weak isn't a great word to use here.
Maybe you'd also disagree that your thinking is sloppy.
"Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is."
As a father to three kids on rhe ASD spectrum, yes I guess you are right. And yeah they need extra time in exams - but honestly no-one writes the final draft the first time. All exams are is how quickly can you regurgitate an essay you wrote (yourself) earlier.
Write, rewrite and repeat. It's the only way. No matter how it bounces around in your brain at some point you mail the slippery thought down and can examine it.
I write everything down because of this. Bullet points, paragraphs etc.
When writing a StackExchange post asking for help, I want to include all relevant information and include a list of things I've tried, along with explanations for why they're dead ends.
Writing it all down sometimes helps me realise that one of the ends is in fact not dead.
Rubber ducking can be a highly productive measure when your mentally clouded and can take many forms.
Then I'll have this odd memory of - "I discussed this with you, I told you all abo- oh wait, I didn't send it."
I felt I was wasting too much time. But I've realized that for me the time spent writing something in details has always helped me fill in the gaps and also discover the unknowns.
I'm using Obsidian right now for this, although you can just use plain code editor it's nice to have WYSIWYG.
Writing for a child forces me to keep the words and concepts very, very simple, and to write in a style that builds up usage of the program from first principles. Writing for the grumpy old-timer is a practice in minimizing questions from them, forcing me to do a sort of final pass on the overall design of what I'm writing about, to defend design choices, and to add future improvements to the backlog. Drafting the documentation for semi-finished features that are still in progress has sometimes led me to change the design in order to make writing the docs targeting these two people simpler.
-- (don't know who said this quote)
So true! Redrafting and self-editing involves so much more than just getting the commas in the right places. This is how we see new linkages that weren't obvious at first. It's how we become more discerning, so we can define the limits and strengths of our concepts more precisely. And it's one of the best ways of opening up new avenues of thought. (If A is valid, then B, C and D become possible.)