Why Write? Especially when ChatGPT can write better?

I’m advocating the team that I mentor to write regularly. This can be in the form of writing weekly plans, descriptions of a task that they take up, feedback to other team members’ work, sharing their learning experience as a blog post, and so on.

In today’s world, where ChatGPT can provide answers to any question thrown at it, it’s important to know why human writing is still important.

The primary reason we write is to clarify our thoughts and deepen our understanding of the things we do in our life. Often, we struggle at work due to a lack of clarity about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and yet continue to act, giving us a misleading sense of productivity. However, this kind of activity tends to be more noise than signal, leading us away from true success. Writing first helps us bring in the necessary mental clarity.

Then, through regular practice of writing, we enhance our spelling, grammar, and word usage to capture our thoughts and document our life and work.

Finally, writing is crucial for communicating our ideas and actions to others, an important activity for effective teamwork. Without this communication, even if you’re part of a team, it’s essentially solo work, and the outcomes are less effective.

A good team player is one who excels in all three key areas: clarity for oneself, mastery over the language, and effectively sharing this clarity with others.

People who rely entirely on ChatGPT for writing tend to overrate linguistic correctness while overlooking the importance of using writing as a tool for self-reflection, clarity, and growth.

While grammatically precise sentences are crucial bridges for effective communication between individuals, messages crafted by ChatGPT may end up being like bridges built over a void: structurally sound but connecting none. As the writer lacks the underlying personal insight and matured thought that writing alone can cultivate, the messages, though well crafted by ChatGPT, don’t add value. As one of my friends said once, it’s fluent rubbish.

For example, writing a plan for a week takes a lot of reflective time: to consider why something is important or not to do next week, the relative value of different tasks in the context of one’s own life and of the organisation one works in, and to prepare the mind for doing the things planned for the next week. Thinking through all of these as we write is the hard work that needs to be done. If this is outsourced to ChatGPT with a few prompts, then we might get a plan that sounds great but lacks real meaning for oneself and for the team. Communicating this hollow plan to others doesn’t help oneself nor the others. In fact, it brings more harm than good.

If all my reasoning is not compelling enough for you to write by yourself, then an answer from ChatGPT itself would serve as the health warning on a cigarette pack.

Me asking ChatGPT: My team members are heavily relying on ChatGPT for many work-related communications. What harm can using ChatGPT cause?

Response from ChatGPT:

… 3. Overreliance: Excessive reliance can significantly impair the development of skills and critical thinking, as individuals may opt for quick, superficial answers from me rather than deeply engaging with and understanding topics. …

Ask yourself, “Do I want to significantly impair my critical thinking?” The warning is akin to the health warning on a cigarette pack. Those who are mindful of their health don’t need the reminder on the pack, and for those who aren’t, the warning often gets ignored.

But unlike a cigarette, this affects health at a deeper, mindset level.

René Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician, said “I think, therefore I am”. It pains me to imagine a future world where the human species is not able to think on its own, and what that future world holds for us!

Write to think!