Every time I’d open my laptop with the intention of sharing my thoughts, I’d freeze up completely. The pressure to craft something "perfect" would take over, and every sentence had to be just right before I could move forward. Most of the time, I’d end up without writing a single word — my thoughts still trapped in my head, never feeling good enough to put down on paper.

Then recently I came across Paul Graham’s essay about, and I'm paraphrasing, writing like you talk, and something just clicked: just write the way you’d talk to a friend. No need for fancy jargon or perfectly structured sentences — just your authentic voice, sharing thoughts as they come. I realized I’d been making writing way harder than it needed to be, turning it into this impossible task when it could be as natural as having a conversation.

So I started trying a different approach. Now, when I write, I imagine I’m talking to someone who genuinely wants to hear what I have to say. I let the words flow without overthinking. Sure, my first drafts aren’t always great, and sometimes my sentences take weird turns. But here’s the thing — I’m actually writing now.

And that’s what matters. Getting thoughts onto the page, sharing them, putting them out into the world. It’s so much better than letting perfectionism keep them locked away. Writing can be like a walk, where ideas naturally find their way to the page.

And now, with AI, it’s literally like talking to a friend. If I still want something to feel "perfect" or more polished, I can just ask AI to refine it. The pressure to get everything right on the first try is gone. I just write — and let AI handle the fine-tuning.