Writing as a Superpower in Corporate Life

I wanted to write up this post after I saw how writing helped Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, in his career for I benefited from writing tremendously. He finishes 100 pages every 2-3 weeks.

Photo by MJ S on Unsplash

Introduction

Recently, I stumbled upon a video interview with Sam Altman discussing the importance of writing for thinking and its contribution to his success as CEO at OpenAI. He also mentioned the document-heavy culture at OpenAI. This reminded me of how much of my own success and growth I owe to my personal culture of writing. In this post, I’ll share my proven methods for using writing to create a more fulfilling life and career.

Writing Is for Thinking, Not Just Recording

There are many resources that emphasize the importance of writing, and I will point you toward those. But here’s one thing I want to stress: writing is for thinking, not just for record-keeping. This is a point most people misunderstand. They think of writing primarily as a way to record. And yes, it works that way too. But writing can improve your quality of life far beyond simple record-keeping. In fact, many people I know never revisit their notes at all, which reduces even the record-keeping benefits of writing.

Writing Produces New Thoughts

Writing not only puts structure around your thoughts, it also produces new ones. Let me give you an example from my own career. As an engineering manager, I often helped my team solve problems even when I wasn’t the expert in that particular service or domain. In one instance, I joined a call during a service outage. I had joined late, and by the time I arrived, the VP of Engineering was saying there were no more ideas left for next steps. The entire team was stuck. I was still fairly new to the company, with limited knowledge of the services and their history.

Out of habit, I opened a blank Word document, shared my screen, and asked the team to tell me the problem statement, symptoms, hypotheses, and attempted fixes. As they explained, I typed everything into the document. Something surprising happened: as the words appeared on the screen, the team began generating new ideas. Within minutes, we had a list of next steps and people assigned to test them. The team was no longer blocked, and momentum returned almost instantly.

This is just one of many times I’ve seen writing unlock clarity and creativity. It wasn’t my domain expertise that made the difference, it was simply creating structure around collective thoughts.

Writing as a Tool for Sanity

Of course, I benefitted personally from this practice as well. I believe writing is one of the ways I’ve kept my sanity in the chaotic, fast-paced world of corporate life. Many times, I’ve noticed my stress comes from my brain trying to juggle too many thoughts, forgetting and rebuilding structures over and over again. Most of the energy gets wasted on mental “plumbing,” keeping track of context and fitting new ideas into an ever-shifting framework.

This isn’t a sustainable way to live. My brain should focus on creating new thoughts and making decisions, not obsessing over structure. That’s where writing comes in. Write it down. Use arrows. Connect the dots. Add context. Build relationships. As you map out your thoughts on paper, your mind sees gaps, contradictions, and new possibilities. That’s what it’s designed to do.

I want to clarify one thing, though. When I say writing, I’m not only talking about long documents. I also mean drafting quick thoughts on a piece of paper or in a small notebook. In fact, I do this much more often than writing long documents. I always keep a small notebook with me, sometimes in my pocket, and even place sticky notes next to my laptop’s trackpad so I can quickly capture and analyze my thoughts on paper. For example, if someone asks me whether we should deploy a build today or tomorrow, and I have several concerns about each option, I jot them down immediately. Seeing them written out helps me analyze the situation clearly, and often I discover a simpler solution than the one that first came to mind.

Practical Ways Writing Helps in Corporate Life

With the fundamentals covered, let’s look at practical ways writing can help you succeed in corporate life beyond the obvious cognitive benefits.

1. Track Your Big Accomplishments

Use writing to capture your weekly accomplishments and present them quickly in 1:1s with your manager. I cannot express the power of this technique enough. I have done it for many years. It first allowed me to reflect on my accomplishments, and it is a very confidence-boosting activity that only takes 30 minutes or less in a week. It also lets your manager see your accomplishments throughout the week. It is different from stand-ups, you can be more liberal in what you include. Finished a job-related book? Add it. Attended a conference? Check. Helped unblock teammates? Check. I even added some of my LinkedIn posts and the engagement they got, which boosted my image as someone who can influence people beyond my team or company, even in the industry. Never underestimate these small things. And of course, talk about your weekly accomplishments as a team member.