I told you that these three skills are the foundational skills upon which to build others. How do you do that? Let’s take them one after the other.
Writing
There is one major thing that writing fosters – thinking. Yes, writing teaches you critical thinking. “You don’t want to argue with someone who can write, ” Jordan Peterson said, “because they will destroy you and slash your argument to bits.”
To illustrate Peterson’s saying, let me tell you a story about my older friend who retired as a director from CBN. I don’t want to argue with him because I know he always wins. Why? Because in the last five years, he has been writing from morning until evening – for five years straight. If he devotes six hours per day, multiply that by 365 days in a year and times that by five years. That is almost 11,000 hours of pure writing – above the famous 10,000 hours of purposeful practice that Anders Ericsson’s research says would make you a master in any field. This was later popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in “Outliers: The Story of Success.”
Even though Gladwell’s interpretation of Ericsson’s research has been faulted by many experts, I always think of the 10,000 hours rule when evaluating the impressive rhetorical ability of my friend. I thought I was the only one who avoided debates with him, but his business partner told me, “no! I don’t argue with him.”
And why wouldn’t he be an expert? Besides mentoring youth online, he spends a lot of time in internet forums where they do nothing but argue. It is said that if you spend one hour a day doing something, in one year, you would be an expert. He spends six!
So whenever I say something that he disagrees with and I give my reasons and he counters, I tell myself: “shut up Ibraheem, as usual, you are not going to win this one.”
Fortunately for me, we agree on many things. On the flip side, he is a good resource to have on your side. Whenever controversial issues are discussed in our social media groups, his jumping into the fray is always a welcome relief.
So writing is important. “Writing plays such a central role in learning, studying and research that it is surprising how little we think about it.”Sonke Ahrens said in his book “How to Take Smart Notes.”
It is so vital that Niklas Luhmann, the German sociologist said “one cannot think without writing.”
Indeed, there was a great man who when asked about something he didn’t fully understand, would say “I don’t know because I’ve not written about it yet.”
I can’t count the favours God granted me through writing. Indeed, even in the tech world, if employers are to choose between two candidates of equal abilities, it is advised that they choose the better writer.
In the book “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the authors advised:
“If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer. It doesn’t matter if that person is a marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever; their writing skills will pay off. That’s because being a good writer is about more than writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in any candidate.”
Writing is Today’s Currency for Ideas
Jason Fried and David Hansson concluded that writing is a currency for good ideas: “Writing is making a comeback all over our society. Look at how much people e-mail and text-message now rather than talk on the phone. Look at how much communication happens via instant messaging and blogging. Writing is today’s currency for good ideas.”
How Do You Start?
Join a social media group on WhatsApp or Facebook and participate. The social media platforms, taking together, are a debating cauldron – hot, spicy and unstable. You can rely on a generous member to write something insightful, crazy or idiotic.
You can also write and share what you know or learned that day with friends. Do this consistently enough and your voice will emerge. At least if you’re going to get addicted to social media, you should do it purposefully.
How Do You Get Children To Write?
My 11-year-old son writes a letter to his namesake (the person they named him after) every morning after our Qur’an memorization session. I gave him a template. So it is a short of two paragraphs: the introduction and the body.
The introduction says:
“Dear X,
Today I learned three words and their synonyms. The keywords are identical, tale and competent.”
Then the body says: “Here are the words and their synonyms…”
After that, he ends with “Yours truly.”
Then I take picture of the page and “mail” it through WhatsApp to the addressee.
He does this like clockwork. Whether I’m in town or not. Because I will call and ask if he had done it.
Also, unlike me at his age, he is a terrible speller. Therefore, to solidify what he has learned and to help improve his spelling, he writes 50 or 70 words from memory on the whiteboard. I’ve told him that I would soon level it up to 100 words per day.
If you want a deep dive into how writing can make you remarkable, read my article “The Best Way to Teach Critical Thinking.”
PS: The two remaining skills are next: teaching and
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