You’ve established a way, internalized a process, and found a rhythm with something.

But to adapt, you have to change all of that, and it's challenging. You gotta unlearn some things and then re-learn new ones. There’s no rhythm or structure. You’re just floating in a strange new ocean that feels like water, but isn't, and now you have to learn to swim in this unfamiliar, funky substance. Just like when you jumped into regular water for the first time.

You like the comfort of knowing what to expect and it’s nice to have something familiar to focus on.

But since everything you’re doing may not fit well into the inevitable format that’s changing your industry, you’re swimming against the current. Working twice as hard to resist what’s coming. Being stubborn means you’re rigid and disgruntled. So now you’re losing energy being pissed off and not upgrading your efficiency.

So if both adapting and not adapting are hard, why not just adapt?

Once you do, this extra weight of punk rock righteousness stops holding you down. Midway through adaptation, you find a refreshing freedom and flow that you never anticipated. Before you know it, a new process and rhythm take over, and you're off to the races.

And I’m not talking about chasing trends. There are many floating around, with passionate advocates claiming ‘this is the new way forever!’ But trends usually fade, and if they don’t, that’s when you get curious and pay attention. You don’t even need to adapt yet. Just pay attention. Eventually it'll become too big to ignore, and as long as you keep a finger on the pulse, you’ll know when the tipping point has signaled it’s time to adapt.

I’m experiencing some resistance adapting at work. Since I was hired at 37signals, we’ve made hundreds of videos, mostly for YouTube and LinkedIn. Some of them have that 🤌🏻 filmmaker polish and represent the best work I've ever done, like this one:

But now, we’re going to focus completely on TikTok.

As a recovering social media addict who’s mostly stayed off everything since mid-2020, this news sounded terrible to me. Social media platforms can be bloated time-suckers that deprive us of deep experiences. They steal valuable time and energy in exchange for quick dopamine hits that leave you feeling like you just ate 9 pounds of saltine crackers.

Not only that, but I’ve spent my career learning and mastering the craft of storytelling. I enjoy using nice cameras, working with cast and crew, and crafting the edit to thread something that makes your brain go ‘wow that felt good - I like that!’

TikTok feels like a clickbait monster with an insatiable appetite for sugar-coated, low effort, lo-fi cell phone videos. It gobbles attention like Pac-Man eats dots. The antithesis of what I know and love doing.

That being said, it’s currently the winning video platform, and we shouldn’t ignore the potential to spread our brand and great products on it. In other words, while it will be a struggle, it’s time to adapt.

My first instinct is to research and educate myself on the best TikTok practices.

While it will be informative to do so, it's probably better to learn by doing. Figure it out as I go. I only get this first impression once, and I may discover a fresh perspective in this limited window.

Sometimes the best way to learn how to swim is to flap around. And it's not like I don't know how to swim, I just don't know how to swim in this ocean. I know the basics of making videos, so I can float. But studying the ocean with a telescope is not going to come close to swimming in it.

I'm gonna get hit by some nasty waves. I'm gonna sink a little bit. It's gonna kick my ass at times. But then that beautiful moment comes when it starts to click. The fear subsides. The confidence rises.

Eventually, I'll say "Hey, this isn't too bad. In fact, it's kinda fun!"

For now, I gotta wade in the uncomfortable. It's the only way you truly grow.

Yes, Tiktok feels ick to this stale millennial. But maybe it's like beer in college or stinky cheese - you just gotta try it enough until suddenly, it's actually kinda good.

(Here's my first attempt at swimming in the TikTok ocean. Spoiler: it wasn't as hard or bad as I feared. In fact, it was kinda fun.)