I've experienced a decline in "deep thoughts" since high school. Back then I'd frequently go on walks and have late night drives + deep talks. These are all mediums of thinking. I'd unearth my clearest thoughts when talking to someone verus thinking in my head. This is because speaking is a filter on thinking. Thinking is like raw ore, maybe there's a cool thought in there, but there are also impurities — assumptions that make sense in our head but not aloud, emotions, vibes, fuzzy intuitive connections, and many random thoughts, etc.. Speaking acts as a refining process on thinking. Only the better thoughts make sense aloud.
However, speaking has its own 'impurities.' Communication is only ~7% verbal (the words we say), the rest is ~38% is tone and ~55% is body language (fact check me — it's well documented). For example, if you say "Rohan you're an amazing writer," but are holding your laughter to the point of tearing up, I'd know you're capping. Alternatively, if you said "You're an amazing writer," but said it sarcastically, I'd also know what you really mean. The issue with speaking is the tendency to crutch and consequently mask weak sentences "um er ah yeah you know what I mean…" with a shrug of the shoulders/arms and incomprehensible sounds and tone that somehow make a point coherent because communication is done via body language and tone, not just words.
Writing, however, is 100% verbal, 0% tone, and 0% body language. In other words, writing has none of the 'impurities' of mental thought or human-to-human communication. Writing is the purest form of thinking. Unfortunately, I have less time for late night talks, drives, and walks, but at least from this n=1 experiment, I've learned I can force out and hone deep thoughts by writing. I wrote this April 3, 2024, but am publishing it Oct 7, 2025. I didn't write anything in between. I want to write more though.