Growing a Little Bit Through Writing and Speaking

I spend most of my day focused on matters related to hair.

When I look into the small but amazingly complex world of hair, questions naturally arise.

I want to understand it better, and I want to explain it better.

So I study, organize, and try to pass it on to others.

In this repetition, I can feel that I myself am also growing little by little.

I believe in the saying, “The best way to truly learn something is to explain it to someone else.”

And I really do feel that way in practice.

To explain something to others, I first have to know it properly myself.

Superficial understanding will not hold up.

I feel this every time I prepare a lecture, write a paper, or write a book.

I don’t think giving a presentation is simply about turning knowledge in my head into words.

The understanding has to be deep enough for the words to come out naturally.

Especially when I want to explain something simply, I have to understand it even more deeply.

Anyone can talk about difficult things in a difficult way.

But to explain a difficult concept in language that anyone can understand,

I think you have to truly digest the topic yourself.

When I prepare lectures or write, the parts I do not fully understand reveal themselves.

At moments like “This part is hard to explain” or “This one is a bit unclear even to me,” I open books again, look up papers, and keep forming questions.

As I keep digging back in and整理ing it all, I find that the depth of my understanding has quietly grown another layer.

That is why I give presentations and keep writing.

It may seem like something I do for others, but in fact it is also something I do for myself.

In the process of explaining and sharing, I discover myself becoming a little stronger.

Traces of Lectures, Writing, and Growth

Last year was a year in which I spent quite a lot of time on lectures, writing, and research.

Every weekend I traveled to different cities to give lectures, and on the train during those trips I revised my lecture materials.

There were many days when I exchanged emails with colleagues until dawn while preparing papers.

I still vividly remember the moments when I stopped in front of the parts that were blocked while writing a book.

Rather than feeling like I had “accomplished something,” I usually felt more like I was “barely keeping up.”

Even so, those times were truly precious.

In the process of preparing lectures and refining my writing, I came face to face with the awkward parts that remained one by one.

To explain things easily, I studied again, acknowledged what was lacking, and filled in the gaps,

and in the end I was able to become a little deeper and stronger.

Of course, I still have a long way to go.

When I prepare lectures, I often feel this.

The moment I start wondering, “How should I explain this?”, real studying begins.

The difference between vaguely knowing something and truly knowing it appears in whether you can explain it or not.

So I keep trying to explain.

It is the same in the lecture hall, in books, and in blog posts.

As I speak, write, and organize things again, I feel that I myself am also gradually moving forward.

At 2 a.m., there is a coffee cup, a laptop, and lecture notes covered in scribbles on the desk.

Maybe I am a little tired, and maybe a little lonely, but I have never regretted walking this path. Rather, I enjoy it.

I like watching myself grow.

It is like leveling up a character in an RPG game.

Like hair—thin yet resilient—I am walking my own path today as well.