Writing to Think
I used to think I wrote things down after I'd figured them out, as a kind of record-keeping. Now I think the writing is where most of the figuring out actually happens. An opinion that sounds solid in your head frequently falls apart the moment you try to write the second sentence defending it.
That collapse isn't a failure of the writing. It's the writing doing its job — showing you that the opinion was really a feeling wearing the clothes of an argument. The uncomfortable part is that you can't get this from thinking harder in your head. You have to commit the half-formed version to a page and watch it wobble.
So the essays here aren't really announcements of conclusions. They're closer to the wobbling, kept mostly intact.