Playing with words or doing literacy is great along with writing code. There is no doubt reading is good, many people agree with that but what about writing?
What we were taught on basis? Given a topic, we first make an outline, then organize and fill it with words, sentences, paragraphs, and eventually an article using a writing method. Contributing to that, there will also be a number of iterations of evaluation and revision. Think of it as the processing of how an artist does sketching and layering their drawings to finalize his work. The same goes for writing code and software development. The first version is usually not the best.
Writing helps to clarify and shape messy thoughts. Messy thoughts, come from many different sources. They can be generated during information exchanging, reading, or events happening in your everyday life. Things in the human brain sometimes are extremely complex that cannot be easily addressed in sessions of verbal talking. Writing or drawing on a physical object like a blackboard is always a super useful technique when it comes to expressing ideas and knowledge.
Writing helps to free your “brain memory”, and makes it more room for processing new information. There are types of human memory and I think they are very close to the memories in the fundamental of computer architecture in terms of capacity, durability, and even functionality. They span from short-term and limited capacity to long-term and extreme capacity, from processing to storage. So when writing, words on paper create an extra memory, act as a cache with high access, and are very close to your working memory. You can quickly pause and resume from the draft. Once the writing is done, it becomes permanent knowledge and ready for your retrial at any time.
Writing is a great form of communication. I think that letting words out is sometimes not very easy and grateful, especially in the form of verbal. Because the emotion and tone in verbal conversation contribute a lot to the meaning of words out. Writing gives you more time to think about word choice, good words even help to address feelings in a way more “gently”. Written works enable people who lived hundreds and thousands of years back to talk and guide you in their thoughts.
The mood is improved when writing despite what you are writing as negative feelings from a traumatic event or a pleasant flow of imagination. Letting things out and being visible in words makes the negative feelings more like to go. While expressive and clear sentences would take you a step closer to achievements when you do think about them on paper, board, or screen. When facing words physically, you are also more likely to communicate with the inner self, which gives you a better understanding of yourself as they jointly reflect your experiences.
Writing is a method of learning. Writing force you into doing more finding and processing information. Making a copy of or bookmark others’ works to your own space simply help you maintain a reference to them. It’s a good way to organize knowledge. Reading does more of consuming information, it’s ok if you already have a level of understanding of the topic, you can easily catch the ideas. Producing a related note or re-writing a piece of knowledge in your own words does even more, they gives you another chance to actually evaluate information and carry out more insights.
Last but not least, writing improves literacy skill since literacy is formed by the act of reading and writing ability. The more reading, the more you will feel the need of writing. As a result, you gradually become better at both.