Why I Publish Bad Blog Posts
Yes, I’ve written bad blog posts and published them.
For any of you who follow me or read my blog, this shouldn’t be a surprise.They can’t all be “War and Peace.”
The thing that’s difficult isn’t writing good content and publishing it—it’s publishing work that’s not that amazing.
It hurts me sometimes if what I write doesn’t feel massively inspiring, insightful, unique, or actionable.
The goal is to get to a place of consistent, high-quality output.
That can’t happen without publishing the bad stuff along the way.This is not a cheap, disguised excuse to pump out crummy content—that would be deliberately cutting corners to reduce the effort required.That would be consistently low quality.Seneca said something like: “in order to know and understand good wine, one must drink a lot of bad, even terrible wine.”I think you get the point.If you want to be great, you have to forgive yourself for not being great right at this very second and understand that you’re going to have to be embarrassed for a little while as you figure it all out.
2 Minute Action
Publish something today.Perform the speech that’s not quite ready yet.Implement a new lesson plan that’s almost all the way there.Unless you’re a brain surgeon, the risk of failing isn’t that high.Go for the gusto, today.
What Is Version 1 and Why Does It Matter?
There’s something weird that happens when you start.It doesn’t have to make sense or be what you planned.
You don’t even have to have a plan at all.
All that matters is that you build something, measure results, and learn something from them.The value of this cycle only kicks in when you have a hypothesis about what went wrong with what you built, and you begin the next building phase just a little bit smarter.
Build, measure, learn.
In that order.Most people can get behind this idea but somehow still find themselves too afraid or unable to start.It’s not about building what you have in your mind.It’s about building SOMEthing.If you’re not embarrassed by who you were 6 months ago, you’re not learning fast enough.
The world is out there, turning.
Your pace is up to you.Maybe you don’t have a million dollar software startup that recommends music playlists to people on the first day.But if you called a friend and asked them what music they liked, and then made a suggestion, you’d be beating someone who is still fussing around with what programming language to start with.The only thing you need to have a business is a paying customer.The only thing you need to do is start adding value.The only thing you need to do is start!
2 Minute Action:
What are you waiting for permission to do?Are you waiting for someone else to pick you?Could you just make a phone call?Could you just apply?Could you just direct message a few people?Could you pilot your idea with a prototype instead of going to a fancy printer?Could you do a wireframe or a mock-up, first?Can you draw it on a napkin or notebook?These are all small “version 1” iterations that can help you build momentum to move you forward with confidence.I can only help ask the questions you can ask yourself later.Your action is up to you.