Creating Something Is a Way of Thinking

Earlier this year I had a conversation with a friend who had recently retired. It stayed with me because it connected to ideas I had already been carrying: what happens when work stops providing most of the structure in our lives, how identity shifts, and why financial readiness is only one part of preparing for retirement. I started thinking more deliberately about the period before retirement itself. Eventually I started calling that period Pretire.

At first it was a concept I wanted to understand better. Notes became chapters. Somewhat unexpectedly, the idea became a book. Over the past several months I have been writing Pretire Before You Retire. The manuscript is nearly finished. I thought I understood Pretire before I started writing about it. I didn’t. Writing was showing me what the idea actually was. Five themes emerged as the foundation: Structure, Expectations, Identity, Discipline, and Curiosity.

Ideas are forgiving in our heads

An idea can remain surprisingly comfortable as long as it stays private. We know the context. We fill in the missing pieces. Writing changes that. At some point I had to explain Pretire to someone who was not already living inside my head. Those questions did not simply help me describe the idea. They changed it.

A draft is a prototype

There is a familiar idea in product development: instead of debating every possibility theoretically, build something and see what happens. I have come to think of writing the same way. A draft is a prototype for an idea. Once the thought exists on a page, it becomes something I can examine rather than simply something I believe. The same principle applies far beyond writing. A business idea becomes clearer when you try to explain why someone would pay for it. A product becomes clearer when someone tries to use it.

I thought curiosity led to ideas and creativity helped express them. I now think the relationship is more circular. Curiosity leads us to create, but creation often creates new curiosity. Sometimes we think in order to create. Sometimes we have to create in order to think.

Something to consider. What idea do you think you understand that might become clearer if you tried to explain, build, or create something from it?