Background: the blogg t-allocation is increasing year on year.  I often receive zsms.

Key benefit: We grow wiser via adversities + reflections [including expressive writing]. Without reflections, the growth is slower. We may even forget the details of the adversity and fail to learn from it.

broad but vague benefit: blogg→evaluation@life→more satisfactions

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/benefits-of-journaling-_b_6648884 lists several underrated benefits.

• [d = true, but often neglected, discounted, dismissed]
• blogg can stretch your child’s IQ. One of the best single measures of overall intelligence as measured by intelligence tests is vocabulary.
• Writing has critical connections to speaking. I need more improvement in speaking than writing.
• [d] Blogg increases chance of achieving personal goals…
• [d] Emotional intelligence (both self and inter-personal). Even without sending out my writing, whenever I write down another person’s perspective, I get a better understanding.
• [d] Blogg can spark your creativity, esp. when facing a tough challenge that requires creative problem solving.
• [d] Blogg can enhance self-esteem and self-confidence. Reflections on positive experiences can build a catalog of personal achievements that you continue to go back to. Indeed I revisit my positive experiences
• via blogg. I also blog about negative experience for learning and coping.

— In the Nov 2022 parent-teacher meeting, I told my daughter’s English teacher that I write everyday.

Background: She said reading for fun doesn’t help kids improve English, even if the kid reads a lot. I said I had many classmates in secondary school who read a lot but didn’t write so well.

For writing, the most effective learning is daily writing.  Even if no one reads it but yourself, writing (and reviewing) periodically can improve your thinking, writing, IQ.

Humans learn and understand complex things through words and sentences (not pictures), so sensitivity with a rich vocab improves overall intelligence.