Andy Boyd makes a quick comment that talking always frames your thoughts.
Isn’t it great how explaining yourself outloud to others, allows you to self reflect better then mulling it over in your own mind?
What’s nice, I think, is that this same dynamic holds whether or not the ‘others’ are real. Even writing for an imaginary audience helps tighten up your thinking. One of the things that I’ve found writing this blog is that I often start off writing something (thinking I have an idea), but after typing away for a bit, I give up. 9 times out of 10 this is because the idea was, to varying degrees, boring or just plain bilge. The other time seems to be when, through thinking it through, I realise that there’s something else I need to look in to further.
As the Big Moustache himself said,
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”
Trying to explain yourself to others (whether they are real or imagined) is a great discipline. and one where failure, happily, seems to be just as valuable as success.