WRITING FORCES DISCIPLINE
If you are not writing, you are losing so much. Writing does not only help you express ideas; it helps you think better. It promotes objectivity and open-mindedness because it forces you to examine your own thoughts before presenting them to the world.
This is even more important in academic writing, where you know your claims can be fact-checked and your arguments can be challenged. Once you know your write-up can be tested, you become more careful with evidence, language and conclusions. That is how writing sharpens the mind.
GAR
“If you actually care about making an impact, you have a responsibility to get rich. Because when good people have money, the world changes.” - Zac Spencer
Every time you “opt out” of your potential, you don't just hurt yourself & your family, but any cause you care about.
That one neuron connects to about 7,000 others. Your brain has 86 billion of them. Do the math and you get somewhere around 100 trillion connections inside your head. More connections than stars in 1,500 galaxies.
And each connection point is way more complicated than anyone expected. A Stanford lab found that every single connection contains about 1,000 tiny switches that can store memories and process information at the same time. So your brain is running roughly 100 quadrillion switches right now, while you read this sentence.
The wild part is the power bill. Your brain runs on 20 watts. That’s less energy than the light in your fridge. The world’s fastest supercomputer needs 20 million watts to do the same amount of raw calculation. A million times more power for the same output.
We’re still nowhere close to understanding how any of this works. In October 2024, a team of hundreds of scientists finished mapping every single connection in a fruit fly’s brain. Took six years and heavy AI help. That fly brain had 140,000 neurons. Yours has 86 billion. Google and Harvard also mapped a piece of human brain last year, a speck smaller than a grain of rice. That speck alone contained 150 million connections and took 1,400 terabytes to store. The lead scientist said mapping a full human brain at that detail would produce as much data as the entire world generates in a year.
A tiny worm had its 302 brain cells mapped back in 1986. Almost 40 years later, scientists still can’t fully explain how that worm’s brain keeps it alive. Your brain has 86 billion of those cells, each one wired to thousands of others, each wire packed with a thousand switches, all of it humming along on less power than a lightbulb.
One thing I find very inspiring in watching my daughter grow is the opportunity to observe how many times we had to try and fail at the little things we now do effortlessly and take for granted.
You are the subject of many stories you did not write.
Not every eye sees you clearly, not every tongue speaks of you fairly.
Release the need to edit their narrative.