Schrodinger’s box: Is there value in writing when you have nothing to say?

amateur antagonist
4 min readFeb 23, 2024

As I’ve said before, we’re all just competing for a nanometer of brain space from some bored internet scroller who will likely only pause for groundbreaking, paradigm-shifting news or a good meme. Anything in between might as well go straight in the garbage.

That being said, is there any purpose, value, need to write when you have no real objective?

Aimlessness gives me heartburn. Sometimes, I sit down to write because I know I should, but at the same time, I have a sense of creeping guilt. I think, at least partially, this guilt is from purposeless writing. I’m a strong proponent of only speaking when you have something worth saying. Occasionally, writing like this feels like I’m contradicting one of my own core values.

However, while the acidity brews in my stomach, I’ll keep writing until it reaches a fever pitch. Someone once told me that putting anything good out there into the world is a good thing, even if it’s never seen by anyone. It’s a nice thought, but I would have to assume this is good for me to even be comforted by it.

I’m sure there is value to destintation-less writing (I’m going to rebrand it for my own sake; purposeless makes me feel bad). There’s a muscle associated with every action, and doing it over and over again strengthens that muscles. Neural pathways and whatnot. Maybe the more I do this, the less painfully introspective it’ll be.

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amateur antagonist
amateur antagonist

Written by amateur antagonist

Interested in philosophy, science, and anything in between || https://amateurantagonist.substack.com/

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