actualNoteContentPart: > "That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
  The relation between language, writing, and reasoning holds a tapestry of implications for those who want to become better at any of the three. In this essay, I'll try to prove that you can seem smarter than you are by expressing your inchoate thoughts through writing. Especially if you're using a tool that enables you to explore perpendicular topics (through footnotes), the process of writing will accumulate connections between topics that are otherwise hard to fit into the brain at once.
  
  ## 🧠 Creative potential limited by brain space
  In a sense, using writing to improve reasoning defies gravity. It should be true that the ceiling for a writer's work is how well they know their topic. You can't explain a subject better than you understand it. Writing quality is limited by the precision with which a writer can articulate interesting ideas from their mindspace. 
  
  That "mindspace" turns out to present a hackable opportunity. The precision of a mindspace is usually limited by human cognition. If we were robots with 64gb of RAM plus the ability to think like humans, we could write and revise essays in our head. Every word would come out just so. Unfortunately, we're not hotshot robots, we're creations of evolution that run two billion year old software on a [20 watt](https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JacquelineLing.shtml) , 1 kilogram blob of gelatin. It will have to do.
  
  When an idea is sufficiently complex or multi-faceted, trying to stuff it all into one's brain imposes a limit on how many of the idea's tentacles can be considered. Most of us aren't smart enough to rattle off the top 10 considerations of any topic. [Several of my high school classmates were smarter than me]() . Several of your classmates were probably smarter than you too. But we can write. Writing is the best path by which the disciplined can harness -> organize -> cull a complex idea. **Great writing tools make ideas of incredible complexity possible to contemplate by substituting discipline for intellect.  **
  
  "Writing as a means to tame complexity" is one way that writing can improve thinking. "Writing as a means to enhance precision" is another way it sharpens thinking. [Even the greatest thinkers don't want to bet on their meat brain to deliver the perfect quip](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/books/review/Krystal-t.html) . Hopefully you find it intuitively true that, as you write, you progressively get wiser about the topic on which you're writing.
  
  This all leads to a usable takeaway:
processedNoteContent: ---
  title: Improve research & thinking depth via Rich Foot...
  tags: 
  ---
  "That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted."- George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture
  The relation between language, writing, and reasoning holds a tapestry of implications for those who want to become better at any of the three. In this essay, I'll try to prove that you can seem smarter than you are by expressing your inchoate thoughts through writing. Especially if you're using a tool that enables you to explore perpendicular topics (through footnotes), the process of writing will accumulate connections between topics that are otherwise hard to fit into the brain at once.
  
  🧠 Creative potential limited by brain space
  In a sense, using writing to improve reasoning defies gravity. It should be true that the ceiling for a writer's work is how well they know their topic. You can't explain a subject better than you understand it. Writing quality is limited by the precision with which a writer can articulate interesting ideas from their mindspace. That "mindspace" turns out to present a hackable opportunity. The precision of a mindspace is usually limited by human cognition. If we were robots with 64gb of RAM plus the ability to think like humans, we could write and revise essays in our head. Every word would come out just so. Unfortunately, we're not hotshot robots, we're creations of evolution that run two billion year old software on a [20 watt](https://hypertextbook.com)`
   , 1 kilogram blob of gelatin. It will have to do. When an idea is sufficiently complex or multi-faceted, trying to stuff it all into one's brain imposes a limit on how many of the idea's tentacles can be considered. Most of us aren't smart enough to rattle off the top 10 considerations of any topic. [Several of my high school classmates were smarter than me]()
   . Several of your classmates were probably smarter than you too. But we can write. Writing is the best path by which the disciplined can harness -> organize -> cull a complex idea. **Great writing tools make ideas of incredible complexity possible to contemplate by substituting discipline for intellect.  ** "Writing as a means to tame complexity" is one way that writing can improve thinking. "Writing as a means to enhance precision" is another way it sharpens thinking. [Even the greatest thinkers don't want to bet on their meat brain to deliver the perfect quip](https://www.nytimes.com)`
   . Hopefully you find it intuitively true that, as you write, you progressively get wiser about the topic on which you're writing. This all leads to a usable takeaway:
noteTitle: Improve research & thinking depth via Rich Footnotes ("writing in 3d")