I am not sure what questions to ask

Questions focus attention; attention requires time.

Reese Hammerstrom
2 min readApr 26, 2018

The questions we ask determine how we spend our mental energy and often inform how we think.

I have been attempting to put together “articles” for a few months for reasons I didn’t define, nor fully understood.

My goal was to publish something at least once a month. The publish frequency was intended to serve as sufficient motivation for me to write.

Consequently, I have gathered a dozen half baked ideas that I haven’t had the interest in continuing.

I was operating under unproductive premises that failed for me.

I thought I could sit and meditate over an idea, develop and write a piece over the course of a couple days, and have something I would be comfortable sharing.

I thought a time based schedule would motivate me to create. However I found myself wrapped up with a deadline structure that felt exactly like school.

This focused my attention on publishing over creating. On distribution over practicing the craft of writing. On finding answers over understanding the questions.

Writing became an anxious activity that I completely avoided — quite counterproductive to my interest in increasing my capacity to convey written ideas.

Yes, distribution is important. But the content itself is more important. If the content is crap, the distribution of the content only amplifies the sub par content… and no one receives value.

I’ve realized I need to allow myself to spend more time on the questions I ask, both on the question formation and question investigation side.

I’ve realized I need to study the ideas and thoughts of other people to hone my own ideas, beliefs, and perspective on the question at hand.

I’ve realized I need to practice writing, learn how I write best, and develop a habit that will allow me the luxury of creating something I may believe to be valuable enough to share.

I have a decent idea of how I will continue my writing journey; however, I don’t intend on publishing anything under any sort of schedule.

It seems I can’t [yet] write on a schedule.

I tend to be hypercritical, introspective, and go out of my way to try to understand things about myself.

This update is a consequence of that exact framework of thinking.

If you want to stay in the loop, you can find me here.

Talk soon,

Reese

reesehammerstrom.me

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