The Reason We Write

A bit of a stream-of-consciousness post this morning.

My strength & life coach is Zach Even-Esh. If you’ve never met or heard or seen him, go find him.

It’s said that we are the people who we hang around with. Although it’s a virtual relationship, Zach is one of those people for me.

He’s got a blog. He’s got a member’s forum. He owns a gym. He runs an online training program that I’ve been involved with since its inception. He’s a high school strength coach. He’s a business man. He’s on lots of social media channels.

Zach has been sending out an email newsletter every morning for as long as I’ve known him. He writes. Constantly.

He’s doing all the things. That’s what makes him a mentor of mine even though he’s 10 years the younger. He’s relentless. He sets the bar.

This morning in his newsletter, he linked to a blog post that included a video review of some old-school books. Spiral bound. Some photo copies of older books. Hard copies. Actual paper.

This isn’t a “special” video or post for Zach – This is SOP for him. It’s who he is and what he does. For some reason this morning, his post captured something that I fear we are losing in today’s social media culture.

The Written Word.

The written word is timeless. It’s been around for centuries.

A book. A bound sent of notes. The tactile feel of pages. Of margin notes and highlights and really getting into a book.

It hit me, watching Zach’s video, thinking about all of the hard-bound information I have in my home HQ.

I started dwelling about all of what I own, information-wise. How much time & effort, by the hundreds, maybe thousands of people who came before me and took the time to write down their thoughts, and to assemble them into a document, a book, a manual. How grateful am I for all of their work?

We are so lucky to have access to the information that we have at our fingertips.

The Juxtaposition

Now, juxtapose the books that you & I own against what we’ve experienced in the past 20 years of lifespan that social media has had. What kind of “writing” have we been exposed to?

When is the last time you read an 8 paragraph post on social that you saved? Can you think of anything you scrolled through today that you remember? The words, not the pictures or the videos – Did you take any notes on anything you read while scrolling?

I’d take a wild guess that in the 3 seconds it took you to scroll to the next post, whatever you thought was important vanished from your mind. And if something did catch your attention or was impactful, what did you do with that information?

Likely, nothing. It vanished from your screen. Then from your mind.

And what of the person who took the time to author it? What was the investment that they made? The time spent writing something that they thought would be valuable to their social circle – What was the ROI of their time? Did they preserve what they wrote? Is it just in their Apple notes, or Evernote, or Word? What happens to it? Will anyone ever see it again?

The Reason We Write

As I watch Zach’s video, going through his books, it hit me like an ice pick to the forehead – THIS IS WHY WE WRITE! THIS IS WHY I NEED TO WRITE!! MORE!!

We write because it’s valuable. What we know is useful & purposeful. When we write, we share what we know. The stories. The lessons learned.

If we don’t write it and preserve it in some sort of repository, it vanishes. It doesn’t get repurposed. It just goes away.

What’s the saying about knowledge loss when people retire, or leave an organization…?

It really hit me this morning. If I don’t do it, what I know will be lost.

Zach reads. He writes. He has a library. A curated collection. Look at the 3 simple books in Zach’s video. All those lessons learned. Weekly training. Nutrition. Stories. All sharable. Timeless resources. Preserved.

I have that same power at my fingertips – Literally.

Action Item for Me

It’s a call to action for all of us. The timelessness of the written word will NEVER go away. Say what you want about AI, I’ll take an old school spiral bound notebook, a 3-ring Brain Book binder, an old marked-up textbook anytime.

For me: Write it. Put it on the website. Put it in a book (that I’ve been talking about writing for years….). Upload it. Put it in my Resident Engineer’s Toolbox. Add it to the Discord. Preserve it so that others can use it.

It’s a Call To Action. Not only for me, but for you too. Start today. Make it happen.