I Don't Research (as a technical writer)

When I write, I deliberately don’t research. The fun of writing is to express myself and explain something in my head. Not researching something and losing focus. Recall what I read is not fun to me. I want to share my opinions.

In a way, my research is taking notes on my Second Brain, all the time, everywhere. But not to one topic, about everything, not connected yet.

When I write these notes, sometimes very old ones can make all the difference. It’s not really research in that sense, more of an idea insights creation.

My other “research” is also just in the field for two decades. Things do not drastically change in an instant, even if the media and social media make us believe so. When I do conduct research, it’s mostly for historical overviews, there, I like to use Claude with a long-form input of mine; putting it into a Mermaid, as I do with my book.

I see my goal as a writer not to recall info, but to make you think, spark new ideas, inspire at best. And also making it entertaining and joyful to read. That’s why I don’t research.

What I do as well: I try the tool and get hands-on. So rather than browsing and reading, I get a feel for it.

Know that there’s different types of writers, but that’s me. I’m a technical author for data engineering and business intelligence. Things I have done in the past—I can describe a feeling or experience much better than researching something, and recall them as if they were my words.

I am using “research” loosely here. At a high-level I mean that I just don’t read lots of specific stuff (I listen to lots of books, unrelated), and just writing from experience.