When writing is mentioned, thoughts of late night essays on The Catcher In The Rye and trauma induced from mile long research papers resurface in one's mind. So why would it ever be useful for a geek, or more specifically, a computer programmer? I mean, in accordance with Hollywood depictions, all they have to do is sit in a dimly lit room and type in code on a computer right? Well, if it were only that easy.
As it turns out, writing is especially important for even someone who works with technical things like programs and codes. The reason being that writing forces one to explicate in detail about a problem that may occur, thereby helping you recognize what needs to be done and get closer to a solution. Writing in relatively coherent manner about a more technical subject helps you to understand what is happening. If you are able to explain recursion in layman terms to your 10 year old niece and then explain it to your more knowledgable professor, chances are that you have great, or at least, sufficient knowledge of the matter.
I also claim that writing helps to improve communication skills. This is especially important in the corporate world. When you interview for big companies like Amazon, Google, or Facebook, the interviewer may ask you a difficult puzzle problem. Chances are that they do not expect you to entirely solve it on the spot, but instead expect you to narrate your thought process in a coherent, logical manner. Doing so proves to your interviewer that you are capable of individual thought, and reveals more of your character to them then a piece of code that, for all the interviewer knows, could have been copied off github or stackoverflow.
