Writing is essentially a nonlinear recursive process
In the process of transforming thoughts into text, thinking is non-linear, while text must be presented linearly.
Linear thinking encourages deep reflection and exploration of the essence of concepts.
Non-linear thinking broadens your perspective and reveals the underlying connections between ideas.
In writing, these two modes of thinking should complement each other rather than oppose one another.
Steven Pinker also states in his book The Sense of Style:
The writer's goal is to encode a web of ideas into a string of words using a tree of phrases.