On making work to make more work
An attempt to creatively unslump
Starting anything is embarrassing.
Maybe it isn’t for you because you don’t live in a constant state of embarrassment, always looking for the most private corner of the coffee shop so no one can see what you’re working on, and, oh god, please don’t read the birthday card I wrote you aloud.
Anyway here I am. And I’m here because lately it has felt like nothing I’ve been making is good enough to share, so my confidence is in the dumps, so I stop making things, and my confidence plummets further. But then I realize I have made new things, they’re just rotting —or pickling, depending on your level of negativity and intestinal fortitude—in a document or a notebook because they’re not quite good enough or they haven’t percolated long enough in the brain to get the final addition that makes them interesting or truly different than what’s probably already out there. Or hey, maybe they are bad. But. In order to make good things you have to make bad things.
I still believe this is true, but it also gets me stuck in it-could-be-better-ism (claiming perfectionism is for confident people). So my intention with this newsletter is to just share the thing, or share the thing that isn’t done yet, and maybe some things will end up being good, or getting better later just because I shared them here (the law of sending an email and only then noticing every flaw) and maybe you’ll like seeing the process, and maybe it’ll help me get unstuck.
The goal is to empty my brain’s cluttered storage unit of hoarded creativity.
Is this just an excuse to make unedited trash and fill your inbox with typos? Maybe. But it turns out the things that I’ve thought have been throwaway are some of the things that have resonated with people the most.
And I’m still trying to work out weighing the validation that comes from something being very popular vs. feeling proud of something that I think is smart but it’s an algorithmic flop. The main point is that the more I make, the more I’ll keep making. Hopefully.
OK, here’s my Thing of the Week:
Notes on this TOW (thing of the week):
“time to move on” is apparently a Tom Petty song I was unfamiliar with until now
it will be in my head for a while
The middle was going to be “let it go” but I already have an Advice from Disney lyrics chart
Here are a few versions
So, what do you think?
Thanks for being here for my first edition of Whatever This Is! If you liked some of the embedded charts, I hope you’ll check out my books.
Your posts are awesome. Your charts and graphs are so thought-provoking. Keep it up!