Mini Essays Turn Brain Rot Into Gold

Morning, Interior by Maximilien Luce

Mini essays are the tool I’ve been searching for to help me process and make sense of my daily life. You can probably tell what they are based on the name, but just in case I’ll explain. Mini essays are short essays that are often informative, but really can be about anything you want. I find myself often going through life feeling like I’m asleep. It feels like I’m encountering ideas, feelings, new information, and experiences, but I forget about them or have to move on to whatever the next thing is. Life feels fleeting, and I want to hold onto it. Mini essays, and writing in general, and honestly all documented self expression have been my solution to this panic inducing thought that life won’t last forever.

Mini essays can be about anything, but what I find particularly useful about them is their ability to freeze time and relish an idea or moment. It’s comforting to be able to hit pause. Consuming lots of content on autopilot scares me. That sounds weird, but put yourself in my shoes. You’re going about your life doing what you need to do to continue to stay alive and well, and then there is a moment where you can do anything you want. Of course, you don’t consciously think about this (probably (at least I usually don’t)), and you look at some random stuff on a screen that you didn’t intentionally seek out. Then the moment is over, and it’s time for the next thing. It’s so sudden. For that moment, it felt like you weren’t alive. That terrifies me. I’ll only be alive for so long. I want to get as much out of it as I can, and that means I need to be present to savor each moment.

Other than this benefit which could be seen as abstract, there are more tangible benefits too. The biggest of these is deep learning. I think mini essays are one of the best ways to engage in deep learning. It forces you to actually think. It’s easy to nod along to conclusions other people came to, but explaining what these conclusions entail and explaining all of the steps leading to them is a billion times better. Don’t believe me? Look it up. There’s a shit ton of research now on deep/effective learning. The more you engage with materials the better you understand the materials.

“For example, the quality of summaries produced by learners after reviewing their notes was the best predictor of later test performance..”

• Friedman, 2014

Some other benefits include possibly helping others, relieving stress (Balkie and Wilhelm, 2005), improving your writing, and providing a boost to your career. If you’re writing about an obscure topic or simply explaining/teaching something, you could help someone improve their understanding of that topic. Even if your writings aren’t explicitly educational, someone could find them helpful. Your writings might make the reader feel a little less alone in the world, or even inspired like Odysseas’ video “Mini Essays: The Ultimate Tool for Learning” did for me”. I’d say that’s pretty helpful. It could also help your career, particularly if you’re in a knowledge specific field or aiming to be in one, and you write about that field. For example, I’d like to work in software, and I also plan on writing about the things I learn related to this field. This can show employers that you truly understand your field and are good natured by being willing to share what you know. As you go about your life, watching videos, reading, or even just scrolling through TikTok, consider writing about the things you encounter, and you might gain something from it.

References

• Michael C. Friedman (2014). Notes on Note-Taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors

• Karen A. Baikie and Kay A Wilhelm (2005). Emotional and physical benefits of expressive writing