When I sit down to write something, particularly something that is meant to share information and teach others, I like to review source material and make sure that I have my thoughts in order.
It is absolutely fascinating how much clarity you get when you clear out the distracting thoughts and intently pour over books, papers, and presentations.
You begin to see the structure that the writer or speaker started with. You begin to see their brilliance in the arrangement of the book or speech–given it’s a good book/speech you have in hand.
This is just one of the things I’ve come to love about writing. It makes me dive deeper. In that deep dive it’s as if you’re seeing a world that very few others see.
I hope it’s not me turning into an elitist or a charlatan, but I stop and wonder how many people reading the book, or how few in the audience of that speech, are really grasping the multi-faceted points that the author is making.
If you skim over books and media, preferring the breadth of a matter rather than the depth, you might be missing out on some stuff that would blow your mind.