Mental Clarity for Writing

Technology is great.  And yet.

Computers can rob the unwary of their ability to think.  The result—or cost—of convenience is loss of thought.  With the ease of computation, deleting, moving, and editing, there is little need for mental clarity.  The process is, write first, think later.  Dump onto the page a smattering of material and then sift through it to see if something can be made from it.  We seem to accept a concept in practice that we condemn in word.  The saying is, look before you leap, but there seems to be blessed little of the former and an abundance of the latter.  We seem to adopt the idea that if it is typed then it is worth reading.  A semi formed thought and a tornado of keystrokes and voila, words on a page.  And that mass of blah gets posted on a blog or sent as an email with no thought of editing or proofreading.  And we all suffer for it.

There is no commitment on computers; nothing is fixed or solid.  It is all soft and mutable.  But there are less fickle means of recording.

On paper there is certain demand for cognitive clarity before the pen can make any sensible markings.  Only so much editing can be done, and there is the work of erasing and rewriting.  Better yet a typewriter puts down letters and words and there they stay with even less modification.  Here the process is think, then record.

I wish there was more thinking that precedes the transformation process that allows for transmitting and sharing ideas.  I of myself buy into the idea of looking first before leaving the solid footing beneath me.

As a postscript, there are little things that computers offer; one is spell checker.  I just learned that sensical is not a word even though its non counterpart is.  The correct word is, sensible. Good to know, and a quote since it’s amusing.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."

--James D. Nicoll