Whenever I had to write a paper in school, I never started with the introduction. While classmates laid out outlines and thesis statements like they were following a blueprint, I dove straight into the middle. The action. The ideas. I would write from the inside out—thoughts first, structure later—piecing together a beginning and end only once the middle had taken shape.
That probably tells you a lot about how my brain works. It's always been easier for me to think in fragments, synthesize on the fly, and build connections in real-time conversations than to stare at a blank page and start from scratch.
In school, this approach was an act of rebellion against how we were taught to write. Now, as a professional, it's just... how I think. But it's also become a bottleneck. Because while I'm constantly thinking, learning, and having insightful conversations, I rarely write anything down. The truth is, I want to share more of my ideas publicly—but I've been trying to write like someone else. This post is about finding a better way.
I'll walk through three areas where I'm experimenting:
- How I curate information to feed my thinking
- Where and when I'm most insightful
- The tools and processes I'm building to turn verbal insights into public writing
I. My Information Diet: Inputs that Spark Outputs
I live by a simple principle: your insights are only as good as your inputs.
For me, that means designing a nutritious information diet. I need variety—different formats, different voices, different disciplines. My typical inputs include:
- Short-form updates: Newsletters, Twitter/X, Substack posts
- Long-form content: Books, white papers, printed articles
- Podcasts and panels: Passive inputs that often spark live synthesis
- One-on-one conversations: Arguably the most important source of insight
But it's not just about variety. It's about community. I don't want to learn about healthcare, AI, or design in a vacuum. I want to hear from people actively building, struggling, and refining their approaches. That's where real insight lives—not in the polished blog post, but in the messy nuance of practice.
So I make it a habit to reach out. If someone writes something compelling, presents at a conference, or even tweets something thoughtful, I'll often message them to learn more. That's how I build my own community of practice—people who think deeply in their field and challenge me to do the same.
II. Where I'm Most Insightful: In the Middle of the Conversation
When I reflect on where my best ideas show up, it's rarely in a Google Doc. It's usually in the middle of a conversation.
That's because I'm an abductive thinker. I don't build ideas linearly. I don't deduce from principle or induct from patterns. Instead, I connect fragments across disciplines, spot analogies, and test ideas aloud. As a designer, this shows up in my love for analogous inspiration. I learn from fields outside my own—like:
- Duolingo for consumer behavior and gamification
- Figma/Config for design systems and collaboration tools
- AI research updates for technical shifts and future patterns
This cross-pollination helps me think differently about problems in healthcare, data workflows, or product strategy.
In professional settings, this means I often bring value not by knowing more, but by reflecting assumptions back to experts, offering metaphors, or framing a messy situation in a clear way. I build trust quickly with specialists. But the hard part? Turning that into a story or framework that makes sense to a beginner.
That's the difference between doing science and communicating science. And it's why I want to write—not just to be insightful in closed circles, but to share those insights with a broader audience.
III. Moving from Verbal Processing to Public Writing
Here's what I'm learning: I might just be more of a verbal thinker than a written one. But that doesn't mean I can't write. It means I need to change how I approach it.
So I'm experimenting with tools and processes to help me capture insights faster and more naturally:
- Voice notes → AI transcription → blog posts
- Conversations → concept maps → public frameworks
- Rough thesis first → iterate for clarity and structure
My goal is not to write perfectly the first time. It's to capture the insight while it's fresh—then layer in context, assumptions, and scaffolding for a broader audience. Editing becomes the bridge from practitioner insight to public comprehension.
The truth is, most of my clarity comes after I've talked through something. So I'm starting to treat voice as my first draft, and writing as the act of refinement.
In Summary: My 3-Part System for Sharing Insights
To build a more regular habit of public thinking, here's the system I'm putting in place:
- Curate a high-quality information diet
Prioritize variety (format + domain) and community-driven learning. - Identify the contexts where I'm most insightful
Lean into conversations, analogies, and interdisciplinary synthesis. - Use tools to translate verbal insights into writing
Voice-to-text workflows, generative editing tools, and rough-first drafts.
Writing is still hard for me. But it's starting to feel less like staring at a blank page and more like doing what I already do best: thinking out loud—and then shaping that into something useful for others.