On Writing in Public
Most of what I write here will be wrong in some small way by the time I understand the subject properly. That used to stop me from publishing anything at all. I would wait for a draft to feel finished, and finished kept receding.
The alternative is to treat writing as a record of thinking rather than a verdict on it. An essay is a snapshot: here is what I believed, and why, on this date. If I change my mind later, that is not evidence the earlier essay was a failure — it is evidence that thinking in public actually works.
Why this matters for technical and business writing
In fintech and payments, the temptation to wait for complete information is especially strong. Systems are complex, regulations shift, and it is easy to justify silence by pointing to what you don’t yet know.
But the people who write early, then revise, tend to develop better judgment than the people who wait. Writing is not just a report of understanding — it produces understanding. You find the gaps in an argument by trying to state it clearly, not by thinking about it in the abstract.
A practical note
Two things have helped:
- Separating publishing from finishing. A piece can go up marked as a working draft.
- Keeping essays short enough that revising them isn’t a burden.
None of this is a discovery. It is closer to a small, repeated bet: that clarity earned in public is worth more than the discomfort of being wrong on the record.
The best time to write about something is before you’re confident, not after.
That is worth remembering the next time a draft feels premature.