Utkarsh Amitabh argues writing sharpens how you think and should replace some meetings. He points to Amazon's practice of silent reading sessions and his own routine: 1 to 1.5 hours daily over a decade, millions of words sketched. He's started a Network Capital writing fellowship to get others to do it.
Questions this video answers
Teams read a well-documented six-page note for the first 15–20 minutes of a meeting (no PowerPoint).
An Amazon #1 bestselling book; articles for the World Economic Forum, Mint, and Harvard Business Review.
More than an hour to an hour and a half per day.
About eight to ten years.
He says he has 'millions of words' written down, of which 'a few hundred thousands' have been used in articles and books.
Chapters
Hi everyone, my name is Utkarsh. I'm the CEO of Network Capital. I love to build communities, scale companies and of course write. So far I've written an Amazon number one best selling book, multiple articles for the World Economic Forum, Mint and Harvard Business Review. Today I'm here to tell you how writing makes you a better thinker and why you should all consider being writers in any shape or form. To start with, let me take you to Amazon, a company that I'm sure you've heard of and perhaps used to order your favorite books, utensils, stuff for home, just about anything. What you'll notice about Amazon, especially their leadership teams, is that when they begin discussing anything, there is no PowerPoint involved. They spend the first 15 or 20 minutes of a meeting and just reading through a well documented six page note. And only once everyone has carefully gone through that note do they begin discussing the matter at hand. And what it does is that it forces everyone to go deep and not just skim through content and actually engage at a substantive level. It's also beneficial for the person who's drafting the note because it helps him or her put clearly incomplete sentences, the entire articulation of the plan of action. It also clarifies for the entire group what's the crux of the matter and what the goal of the meeting should be. If you look at any Amazon document carefully, things like the ultimate goal, open questions, clarifications, these are all pointed out. So it's a win win for everybody involved. It's time bound, it's efficient, and most importantly it makes everyone involved in this process a better thinker. Taking inspiration from companies like Amazon, many other startups in the Silicon Valley, in India, in Europe, has started introducing new ways of conducting meeting. Especially in the times of pandemic where we are all suffering from the kind of zoom fatigue or video conference fatigue, it makes sense to consider writing an important complement to face to face conversations digitally. I'm not in favor of doing away with meetings, but I'm definitely recommending that writing as a clear tool of explaining your thought process goes a long way. I've personally benefited from having a strong writing regimen. Even when I was in consulting or working at Microsoft or you know, in pursuing my mba, every day I took out, and I still take out more than an hour, hour and a half to write. It helps me reflect, it helps me understand what's going on and process information, reflect on the day, and essentially gives me a very large material which I call my writing operating system where I can Pick and choose. Content when I'm writing my next book or writing my next. Article is a lot more nuanced and a lot more depth inducing than just sitting under a tree and thinking, which is also important. But carving time out to translate what's in your head to a piece of paper is perhaps the most useful thing or a habit that I've picked up and continued now for almost eight to 10 years. I always knew that I enjoyed writing, but more regular with the process made me fall in love. Most of the art as well as the craft of writing, the rigor as well as the poetry of writing. And I see that I'm able to of course communicate ideas with whoever I want, when I want. And it has given me the flexibility to translate my one minute and also an hour. So when I give lectures at universities in Europe and the US and sometimes in India, I have to essentially explain complex, complex concepts in, you know, an hour or two when I'm teaching a course. However, when I'm introducing a string of concepts, I'm able to, you know, give, make the discussion a lot more interactive. But none of it is just me winging it. It comes down to all bits and pieces coming together in the form of my writing operating system, which, which I first used to earlier used to do in my diary, but now I use these online note taking tools and Word documents and Google Docs and what have you. I have millions of words written down, out of which I have used a few hundred thousands for my articles and books. But more than a million are still, you know, semi formed ideas that I've tinkered upon. In the years to come, I plan to dive deep about network capital or just a way in which I express my curiosity. But this writing operating system is something that has been transformational for me both in my personal life as well as my professional life. So my call to action for all of you is take up writing seriously. It will be the single most effective and important tool that will help you enhance your critical thinking skills. Skills. If you're regular with it and you persist despite all odds, you will see a tangible difference between the way you used to think and the way you think today. We have a writing fellowship coming up on network Capital. Please do check us out and consider subscribing. It's a labor of love will help all our subscribers build their category of one. And yes, my category of one concept essentially came from a Harvard Business Review article that I wrote, a concept that occurred to me sometime last year. But I wrote it down in a few weeks and HBR decided to publish is now the motto of the company. It's something that we hold near and dear to our heart. Lots more adventures to come. Take care, be well and talk to you soon.
