For the longest time, I've wanted to write essays of my own. Inspired by the work of others, I wanted to develop the ability to articulate and develop my thoughts. However, each time I sat down to write, I stalled. I got stuck and made up excuses. I need my own website first, right? And the design has to be perfect before I can publish anything. I have to perfect my drafts in Microsoft Word or show them to a few friends to get feedback before publishing them. Right?
All of this was a form of avoidance. Developing my own convictions was work that I didn't want to do, giving me no reason to write. When you spend your entire life constantly consuming content from other people, there's little room to have your own ideas, let alone develop them enough to write. I felt that I had nothing interesting or new to say because, well, I didn't. I also felt that in a world that had moved past blogging, where everyone had a Substack or a Medium, that there was absolutely no space for new ideas and writing. That the path to influence via blog was dead.
Some of those things about blogging and new ideas might be true but they miss the point. Writing isn't about getting readers or giving advice or marketing myself and all of my brilliance or whatever; I'm not writing for a living. The typical achiever mindset applied to writing makes it seem pointless unless you're writing the next Great Book or winning over customers via your company blog. Writing is valuable in and of itself. I have to develop convictions of my own. It's the only way to be a free individual who makes his own decisions. Having well-developed opinions of my own and ideas that I believe in strongly are a prerequisite to doing anything interesting. They're necessary to create something. Sure, these ideas might not be new but they could be recombinations of older ideas, which is itself valuable. The alternative is to forever be subservient to the opinions of others, to the next hot thing that the Wall Street Journal is writing about and your favorite influencer is tweeting about. Following the wisdom of *insert famous person here* is, at best, a way to become a worse copy of that person. The thing that makes this person special is that they were unique, not that they followed a script written by someone else! If there was a script in some article or book that anyone could follow to be successfully, everyone would do it. Yet, I keep looking for that hack, that trick, that path to follow that ties up life in a perfect bow. All the while completely oblivious to my own desires, thoughts, and values.
Many of the things that I like and admire, from Ruby on Rails to Mark Manson's writings, are a result of the daring ideas of the creators. Unique, often heretical, ideas that the creators acted on to produce something interesting. Having your own convictions, developing them, acting on them, and being comfortable expressing them is the ultimate expression of individuality and creativity.
I've realized that the form doesn't matter. What matters is being able to publish things in a quick and dirty way; writing that is a step up from journaling but not necessarily a polished article ready for publication. The number of readers or the platform don't matter -- I'm not optimizing for any of those things here. I'm excited just to be able to articulate ideas in my head and to piece together things I'm learning. Above all, I want to develop personal truths that I bring to the table when there is no right answer.
All of this was a form of avoidance. Developing my own convictions was work that I didn't want to do, giving me no reason to write. When you spend your entire life constantly consuming content from other people, there's little room to have your own ideas, let alone develop them enough to write. I felt that I had nothing interesting or new to say because, well, I didn't. I also felt that in a world that had moved past blogging, where everyone had a Substack or a Medium, that there was absolutely no space for new ideas and writing. That the path to influence via blog was dead.
Some of those things about blogging and new ideas might be true but they miss the point. Writing isn't about getting readers or giving advice or marketing myself and all of my brilliance or whatever; I'm not writing for a living. The typical achiever mindset applied to writing makes it seem pointless unless you're writing the next Great Book or winning over customers via your company blog. Writing is valuable in and of itself. I have to develop convictions of my own. It's the only way to be a free individual who makes his own decisions. Having well-developed opinions of my own and ideas that I believe in strongly are a prerequisite to doing anything interesting. They're necessary to create something. Sure, these ideas might not be new but they could be recombinations of older ideas, which is itself valuable. The alternative is to forever be subservient to the opinions of others, to the next hot thing that the Wall Street Journal is writing about and your favorite influencer is tweeting about. Following the wisdom of *insert famous person here* is, at best, a way to become a worse copy of that person. The thing that makes this person special is that they were unique, not that they followed a script written by someone else! If there was a script in some article or book that anyone could follow to be successfully, everyone would do it. Yet, I keep looking for that hack, that trick, that path to follow that ties up life in a perfect bow. All the while completely oblivious to my own desires, thoughts, and values.
Many of the things that I like and admire, from Ruby on Rails to Mark Manson's writings, are a result of the daring ideas of the creators. Unique, often heretical, ideas that the creators acted on to produce something interesting. Having your own convictions, developing them, acting on them, and being comfortable expressing them is the ultimate expression of individuality and creativity.
I've realized that the form doesn't matter. What matters is being able to publish things in a quick and dirty way; writing that is a step up from journaling but not necessarily a polished article ready for publication. The number of readers or the platform don't matter -- I'm not optimizing for any of those things here. I'm excited just to be able to articulate ideas in my head and to piece together things I'm learning. Above all, I want to develop personal truths that I bring to the table when there is no right answer.