Been thinking about the difference between thinking privately and thinking with an audience. When you’re forced to articulate something in public, to actually say it out loud to people, it hardens. You can’t hide in the vagueness. The thought has to hold up.
It’s why the first book or the first album is so often the best one. It was made before anyone was watching, with years of pressure compressed into it, the thinking was hardened over a long time in private, then it had to stand on its own in public. After that, the conditions change. The forcing function gets weaker.
When did your best thinking happen, alone with the problem, or the moment you had to defend it to someone?