august 2025
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in eighth grade, my class's literature teacher gave us the weirdest, most unique, yet interesting exam essay question ever:
"write what you think. period."
for the first five minutes, we went through a rollercoaster of emotions, full of doubts and wonders. we started with "wait, wtf is this?" to feeling "hmm, is he being real" to finally realizing "no, he really means it. what should i do right now?"
same for me. in fact, for the first ten minutes, i wasn't able to think of anything. i started questioning my own existence in the classroom, the teacher's desire and intention, the purpose of this exam, and a lot more.
i basically overthought. but, it was so paradoxical that the more i thought, the more i was supposed to jot down all of my thoughts, but i also got stuck in the loop of thinking and not being able to write anything.
after almost fifteen minutes of constant mind racing, i decided to just "yap" on the essay. i started trash-talking about the classes, whining about the school, complaining about how this question couldn't have been more stupid and disorienting, discussing why my friends and i deserved a teacher who would be giving more structured questions, and so on.
i felt so much relieved then. i was able to write so much stuff down. within just 20 minutes, i was already writing on the last page of the exam paper and was ready to grab another one.
after an hour, i submitted two exam sheets.
i didn't remember how i did on the exam. but, at that moment, i realized the power of thinking and writing. i was able to get so many things done just by writing down all my thoughts at the time, no matter how unstructured, fragmented, or disorganized they were.
kidlin's law, one of the most powerful and renowned laws of humanity, stated that: "writing down a problem clearly is a powerful, often overlooked tool that breaks down complexities, reveals root causes, and structures thoughts, essentially solving 50% of the challenge instantly."
besides the "problem-solving" aspect of the law, it also proved one point: thinking and writing are the combo that should always go with each other. you think, you write, and as you write, it lets you elaborate your thoughts, helping you think more clearly.
back then, we were not allowed to use computers in class. all of the exams were written on paper. yes. literally must be written using a pen. a good friend of mine was still using the mechanical pen, the one that you would have to pump ink every single day. it was somewhat ass, ngl, because writing was so tiring, and with the stress of time running out, my palm started sweating and shaking uncontrollably. nowadays, a computer is my go-to for all of the notetaking and journaling. it was faster and a lot more convenient. but along the process, i also realized how my thinking was becoming less active.
this research (1) points out the great connection between handwriting and thinking. your brain is thinking in words, and by writing those words down, you are basically repeating those words in your mind again, then tracing the image and appearance of every single character, letter, accent mark, and number. that process alone, while it might be more time-consuming, was actually helping you become clearer with your writing. typing, on the other hand, is your fingers pressing on buttons and buttons - and yes, while you still visibly see the characters running on the screen and on the phone, your action is simply pressing, not tracing, and that's problematic.
nowadays, though i type most of the time, i still keep myself a notebook and a pencil in case i want to quickly jot down my thoughts, draw, sketch, write dumb stuff, and do more things. those doodling and drawing sessions have helped me a lot to flow my ideas better and more coherently.
chatgpt is breaking that flow, sadly. ever since ai came out, it, while indeed helped a lot of us write things in like seconds, because the writing now is no longer attached to the thinking, as chatgpt has done all of the thought process, most people are now left with pieces of writing that sound so philosophical and grand-scheme, but in fact, really soulless and hollow.
it's also common nowadays that chatgpt has become the most "trustworthy" space for people to come and have their writing fixed so that it could sound more polished. i don't judge, but it's sad to see that we are losing the sense of "originality" in exchange for something that, again, appears better on the outside, but robotic and repetitive.
i can't lie - i'm an ai person. i love using ai for different things, but mostly things that are repetitive and mundane, so i could spend time doing things that would require more creativity from me. ai is becoming more and more powerful, but, if you let it control your originality and creativity, then you're using it wrong. ai should be used to increase your standard so you can use your advantages to focus on bigger matters. it should be your assistant and listener, not owner.
that being said, in today's era of ai advancement, the idea of originality and creativity, personally, is becoming a lot more appreciated and valued, and all it takes is that you write down things that you think of and ensure you're not using ai to control your yapping sessions. this entire essay thus far has been me "thinking out loud" on the screen, writing down as i was thinking about what was going through my mind. so, if you feel like my shit has been fragmented or disconnected, it's because i think of different things, but i wrote them all down without the help of any ai tools to fix my language or whatsoever.
write what you think. you must do it more often. yap and be happy with your originality.
img source: luyện chữ đẹp cùng chú cường