Putting Ideas into Words
Paul Graham’s essay Putting Ideas into Words makes a provocative claim: if you’ve never written about a topic, you don’t truly have complete ideas about it.
The Core Argument
Writing about something—even something you know well—reveals gaps in your understanding. Graham states: “Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn’t know it as well as you thought.”
Ideas feel complete in our heads. But the act of committing them to words exposes incompleteness and imprecision. Many ideas emerge during the writing process, not before it.
Why Writing Demands Precision
Unlike conversation, writing has no tone of voice to carry implicit meaning. You must commit to “a single, optimal sequence of words.” This constraint forces clarity.
Graham introduces the “stranger test”: read your work as an uninformed reader would. This external perspective reveals what’s missing or unclear. Sometimes satisfying this rational stranger requires sacrificing elegant prose for clarity.
Implications for Research
This essay changed how I think about the writing phase of research. Writing isn’t just communication—it’s thinking.
When I struggle to write a clear explanation of my method, that’s not a writing problem. It’s a thinking problem. The confusion in the prose reflects confusion in my understanding.
This reframes writer’s block. When I’m stuck staring at a blank page, it often means I haven’t thought through the idea completely. The solution isn’t to push through—it’s to step back and think more carefully.
Writing as a Research Tool
I’ve started using writing earlier in my research process:
- Before experiments: Writing out the hypothesis and expected results reveals gaps in reasoning
- During analysis: Explaining results in prose often surfaces interpretations I missed
- After completion: The paper-writing process frequently leads to new insights
The PhD thesis is usually seen as a final documentation step. But Graham’s essay suggests it should be seen as a thinking tool—the process of writing crystallizes and completes ideas.
The Fully Formed Idea
Graham’s most provocative claim: people who never write about a topic lack truly complete ideas about it. Ideas feel complete internally until subjected to the rigorous test of articulation.
This is humbling. How many topics do I think I understand but have never written about? The list is long. Each represents an opportunity for deeper understanding.
My Practice
Inspired by this essay, I’ve adopted a simple practice: when I think I understand something, I try to write a clear explanation. If I can’t, I don’t understand it yet.
This blog is partly an exercise in that practice. Writing these reflections forces me to engage more deeply with the ideas than passive reading would.
What ideas have you discovered through the process of writing? I’d love to hear at persdre@gmail.com.