Disadvantages of Writing
• Writing can be very addictive, since it's a continuous process of creation that seems without ending, where one feels there is always more to add, delete, rephrase, etc.: we are naturally addicted to "completing patterns." Accordingly, as in other addictions, so much time, self-control and reasoning are sacrificed, negatively affecting one's life:
Missing other pleasures in life while one is glued to a screen with a bunch of letters on it. You are too busy taking photographs rather than enjoying the view!
Ignoring one's other responsibilities: financial, physical and social responsibilities. You are busy solving other people's problems and finding answers to the greater questions of life, yet you can't fix the leaking faucet keeping you from sleep. Worse still, you may not be fairly paid for the time and energy you invest in writing.
Missing other types of knowledge that could've been obtained differently, by reading, free thinking, real-life experiences, or writing about other subjects.
To minimize the damage of the above, one can write about their most pressing problems. By doing so, they at least gather information and find the best solutions, that they can later apply once they are done writing. As for the missed pleasures they can write about such pleasures. The missed types of knowledge can also be made up for by diversifying the topics one writes about. However, one must stop writing completely, whenever they need full attention to something else.
• Missing the whole picture and basic "priorities" while one is absorbed in details, which can even flaw the very point one focuses much on or tries to prove.
To avoid this, reading and writing about different topics, taking a break, doing other things, and thinking logically, all help us return to "the general" rules of life and remember its purpose.
• Mistakes caused by familiarity with one's own works, caused by over-reading such works, for proof-reading and otherwise, which causes memory bias, making one satisfied with and unaware of the writing mistakes they committed. To solve such problem do the following:
Use harsh self-criticism.
Don't hesitate to make any changes immediately when needed.
Read what you wrote only occasionally, or after reading/writing/doing something else equally absorbing.
Expose yourself to others' opinions and respect their criticism, from which to take or discard whatever improves your work.
• Slowing down some brain functions, such as imagination and observation, while one is focusing on arguing and using language skills only. Any argument is useless if it doesn't lead to positive action and real change. And any language is useless if it fails to represent meaning correctly: language is only a medium, that may or may not lead to meaning. If the latter, it does more harm than good.
• Ignoring unconventional knowledge, such as incomplete, subconscious, personal, experimental, or even absurd ideas, if one writes too formally or to please other people.
This is why it's good to write, at least to oneself, in various styles to get the benefits of each: expressive, descriptive, surreal, impressionistic, parenthetical, fractal, minimalist, or totally non-verbal (graphs, illustrations, etc.). Just as there are different types of intelligence, so are the writing styles that should reflect such differences.
• Over-trusting one's knowledge, logic, intelligence ...
One may wrongly trust their knowledge of a certain subject only because they wrote excessively about or spent much time on, developing an idle satisfaction while they are still ignorant. They may even trust their knowledge of subjects they never wrote, read or thought about.
One may apply the same arguing techniques used in writing a work, to another irrelevant context. For example, after finishing a work, one may feel over-confident in a conversation requiring different arguing skills.
When one produces many successful works, one may attribute this to their genius only, ignoring other possible factors: long and hard work, good style, impressive parts, people's tastes, market needs, publicity skills ... and luck.
Explanation:
