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8<style>:root{--page-bg:#f7f4ee;--ink:#2d262c;--ink-muted:#5a5158;--accent:#6f5a74;--ui-sans:"Instrument Sans",ui-sans-serif,system-ui,-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,"Apple Color Emoji","Segoe UI Emoji";--editorial-serif:"Newsreader",ui-serif,"Iowan Old Style","Palatino Linotype",Palatino,Garamond,serif;--mono:ui-monospace,SFMono-Regular,Menlo,Monaco,Consolas,"Liberation Mono","Courier New",monospace}body,html{background:var(--page-bg);color:var(--ink)}body{margin:0;padding:0;font-family:var(--ui-sans);box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing:grayscale}body:before{content:"";position:fixed;inset:0;pointer-events:none;z-index:0;opacity:.6;background-image:radial-gradient(1200px 900px at 30% 15%,hsla(0,0%,100%,.75),transparent 60%),radial-gradient(1100px 800px at 70% 0,rgba(0,0,0,.035),transparent 55%),radial-gradient(900px 700px at 80% 85%,rgba(0,0,0,.03),transparent 60%),url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='140' height='140'%3E%3Cfilter id='n'%3E%3CfeTurbulence type='fractalNoise' baseFrequency='.9' numOctaves='3' stitchTiles='stitch'/%3E%3C/filter%3E%3Crect width='140' height='140' filter='url(%23n)' opacity='.18'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");background-repeat:no-repeat,no-repeat,no-repeat,repeat;background-size:cover,cover,cover,140px 140px;mix-blend-mode:multiply}body>*{position:relative;z-index:1}.prose a{color:var(--accent);text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:.2em;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:color-mix(in srgb,var(--accent) 50%,transparent);text-decoration-color:color-mix(in srgb,var(--accent) 50%,transparent);transition:-webkit-text-decoration-color .15s ease;transition:text-decoration-color .15s ease;transition:text-decoration-color .15s ease,-webkit-text-decoration-color .15s ease}.prose a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration-color:var(--accent);text-decoration-color:var(--accent)}@supports not (color:color-mix(in srgb,black,white)){.prose a{-webkit-text-decoration-color:var(--accent);text-decoration-color:var(--accent)}}h1,h2{color:var(--ink)}h2{font-size:1.7rem;font-family:var(--ui-sans);letter-spacing:-.01em;padding-top:2rem}.prose blockquote{border-left:2px solid #9b8ea8;margin:2rem 0;padding:.25rem 0 .25rem 1.5rem;font-style:italic;color:var(--ink-muted)}.Home_container__d256j a{color:inherit}.Home_header__y2QYS a{text-decoration:none}.Home_container__d256j a:hover{color:#887694}.Home_container__d256j a:active{text-decoration:underline}</style><link rel="stylesheet" href="/_next/static/css/56d63231531d3946.css" data-n-g media="print" onload="this.media='all'"><noscript><link rel="stylesheet" href="/_next/static/css/56d63231531d3946.css" data-n-g></noscript><link rel="stylesheet" href="/_next/static/css/0101cfbd9efa2904.css" data-n-p media="print" onload="this.media='all'"><noscript><link rel="stylesheet" href="/_next/static/css/0101cfbd9efa2904.css" data-n-p></noscript><noscript data-n-css></noscript></head><body><div id="__next"><div><article class="Home_container__d256j"><div class="Home_main__VkIEL"><div class="Home_header__y2QYS"><nav><a class="Home_title__hYX6j" href="/">Barry's Website</a><ul class="Home_links__mWyht"><li class="Home_link__Ytel_"><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/barrald" rel="noreferrer">Twitter</a></li><li class="Home_link__Ytel_"><a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/barrald/" rel="noreferrer">Github</a></li><li class="Home_link__Ytel_"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrymccardel/" rel="noreferrer">LinkedIn</a></li><li class="Home_link__Ytel_"><a target="_blank" href="https://hex.tech" rel="noreferrer">Hex</a></li></ul></nav></div><h1 class="text-6xl md:text-7xl lg:text-8xl font-bold tracking-tighter leading-tight md:leading-none mb-12 text-center md:text-left">Write for Yourself</h1><div class="max-w-2xl mx-auto"><div class="mb-6 text-lg"><time datetime="2026-04-07T00:00:00.000Z">April 7, 2026</time></div></div><div><article class="prose prose-lg max-w-none"><p><em>This post is adapted from an internal memo I sent the team at Hex last week.</em></p> 9<blockquote> 10<p><em>If youâre thinking without writing, you only think youâre thinking -</em> Leslie Lamport</p> 11</blockquote> 12<p>Before making a hire at Hex, we ask a Lead to write up a brief Hiring Thesis. Itâs a pretty short thing, explaining why the candidate is exceptional and deserves one of the limited seats on our little boat. It gets sent to their Lead and myself, and we have a chance to ask some questions.</p> 13<p>These kind of procedural steps can feel like a chore. And, inevitably, Iâve heard murmurings of people saying âI have to write a hiring thesis <em>for Barry.</em>â</p> 14<p>I get where this is coming from, but I want to share the truth: <strong>the doc isnât for me</strong>. I may be <em>an</em>
14 audience for it â but the real utility of the document is for the Lead themselves. And even then, the point isnât even the written artifact, rather <strong>itâs the thinking behind it.</strong></p> 15<h2 id="why-write"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#why-write"><span class="icon icon-link"></span></a>Why write?</h2> 16<p>If you watched me writing this email right now, youâd see me typing on my keyboard: adding, deleting, editing, and rephrasing. But what youâd <em>really</em> see me doing is <strong>thinking</strong>. Writing is really just giving structure to your thoughts. As Joan Didion put it, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/769846/i-write-to-find-out-what-i-am-thinking-by-joan-didion-introduction-by-griffin-dunne/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>âI write to find out what I am thinking.â</strong></a></p> 17<p>The act of writing requires you to grapple with and organize your ideas, and separate the wheat from the chaff. It forces precision; without it, your thoughts can feel coherent, but often arenât fully formed or internally consistent. And by writing down your thoughts, <em>you can observe for yourself</em> whether theyâre any good.</p> 18<p>Itâs not infrequent for me to sit down to write and realize that I <em>donât</em> have my thoughts sorted out! <strong>I have an enormous graveyard of abandoned docs that served only for me to wrestle with and discard a bad idea.</strong></p> 19<p>In fact, I have literally sat down to write job specs and hiring theses and <em>decided not to pull the trigger</em>. In one case, I had already indicated to the team I was going to move forward with a candidate, sat down to write the thesis, and realized⦠I didnât buy it. It would have been easy to skip this! I'm busy. No one made me do it. But writing saved me from what Iâm sure, in retrospect, would have been a bad hire.</p> 20<p>And of course in the positive case, writing when your thoughts <em>do</em> make sense can be euphoric. It can build conviction, from seeing the strength of your ideas manifested. It can build clarity, from editing the bad bits. And it can lower anxiety, from putting the scary stuff in black and white.</p> 21<p>All of this is why I am glad that we have historically had such a strong writing culture. As an example within EPD, the prevalence of feature specs RFCs helps build clarity and confidence in our ideas. At some level these documents are for an audience, to get their buy-in on an approach â but the first and most important reason is for the <em>author</em> to deeply consider the subject themselves.</p> 22<h2 id="ai-as-a-bicycle-vs-a-crutch"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#ai-as-a-bicycle-vs-a-crutch"><span class="icon icon-link"></span></a>AI as a bicycle vs. a crutch</h2> 23<p>Of course the 500B parameter elephant in the room is AI; the ability for LLMs to write compellingly creates a real dilemma.</p> 24<p>Thereâs something amazing about giving an agent a scrap of a thought, and seeing it generate prose. It can feel clear, cogent, and even <em>seem</em> creative. And of course it's much easier than extruding the thoughts out of your own brain.</p> 25<p>Let's be honest: who amongst us hasnât occasionally delegated too much writing (and therefore thinking) to a machine? It can be be tempting. Iâll confess there have been times Iâve been both delighted and disturbed at how I use AI. I find myself having ChatGPT or Notionâs agent take cracks at things and itâs helpful but⦠in some cases itâs more like I just skipped a workout. <strong>Itâs <em>easier,</em> but Iâm worse for it.</strong></p> 26<p>This is a fundamental â even existential â question we all must navigate: are we being quietly robbed of our ability to think? To be weird? Are we going to be separated into <a href="https://paulgraham.com/writes.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">"writes and write-nots"</a>?</p> 27<p>The question is about what level of abstraction you want to live at, versus what youâre delegating down to agents. For something like a strategy doc or hiring thesis, I might use an AI to organize notes, do research, or even push back on some of my ideas. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjIhmzU0Y8Y" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">It can be an amazing âbicycle for the mindâ</a>.</p> 28<p>But ultimately, I try to embrace being the one writing it out in âlonghandâ â because in doing so Iâm able to actually think, be creative â and therefore be human.</p> 29<h2 id="clear-communication-is-evidence-of-clear-thinking"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#clear-communication-is-evidence-of-clear-thinking"><span class="icon icon-link"></span></a>Clear communication is evidence of clear thinking</h2> 30<p>So, going back to hiring docs: <strong><em>this</em> is why I want you to want to write job specs and hiring theses â for yourself</strong>.</p> 31<p>Imagine if someone came to you saying âI want to spend $250kâ. Itâd be reasonable to ask some basic questions. What for? What do we expect to get? Why did we choose this vs. alternatives? And if someone couldn't be bothered to write that down - nay, <em>if they hadn't bothered to write it down to think through it for themselves</em> - that would be concerning.</p> 32<p>And all the more if that money is for a living, breathing human with aspirations and obligations. The decision to hire someone is a weighty one, and deserves at least a modicum of time to think it through. The point of the hiring thesis isnât about checking a box - it's the receipt demonstrating that you've thought it through.</p> 33<p><strong>This applies to all of you, whatever role you are in, even if you'
33re not hiring people</strong>. We are a heavily builder/IC-driven culture, and every day there are many decisions being made by individuals across the org â and I hope you can all find a moment to write, reflect, and <em>think</em> as you figure them out. Maybe you never share the document with anyone. Maybe it just serves as your own mental gym, forcing you to do reps with an idea and get strong.</p> 34<p>â</p> 35<p>I hope youâll take the time to write something today, but don't do it for anyone else! <strong>Write it for yourself; think it for yourself.</strong></p></article></div></div></article></div></div>
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