Writing the report is more important than reading it
It's Xmas early for me and I just received a Kindle Paperwhite as a gift. The first thing I did is try the annotation functionality. I'm not sure how it works internally so my first reflex was to send it to my email. Here's the first thing I highlighted:
“(...) the author is forced to be more precise than he might be verbally. Hence their value stems from the discipline and the thinking the writer is forced to impose upon himself as he identifies and deals with trouble spots in his presentation. Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information. Writing the report is important; reading it often is not.”
High Output Management was written in 1993 by Andrew Grove and is regarded as one of the best business books of all times. This passage on the value of writing to understand things sounds as refreshing as any « genius » quote I read everyday on business blogs.
Writing the report is more important than reading it. It makes it easier to digest the fact that a lot of our creative work gets thrown out of the window. The report is not read. The analysis is not challenged. The creative is not used as is. The idea is rejected. The technology is not implemented. It's frustrating. But less frustrating if you do it for yourself, as an exercice of self-discipline.