Is your work better than you think it is?

Quick dip into one of my favourite topics, silly humans getting in the way of our own selves

Welcome to my first newsletter. You're reading this because you're awesome enough for me to feel comfortable sending this to you. Feel free to subtly unsubscribe or go all out and just tell me I’m an awful person.

Whats up?

I've contemplated writing a newsletter for a while but I didn't prioritise it and had too many things swirling round my mind. Lately I've found that I've missed the power of writing to make sense of my thoughts. Writing gives ideas a chance to reach their true form and the writer to understand themselves.

I've blogged about my 'explosive thinking' as a concept. Instead of debating a name for even longer I figured I'd roll with that for now. Following the advice of Paul Graham, release early, release often and improve. So I haven't created a specific angle for this newsletter. I will be starting with explaining the ideas I'm having and need to give justice to. Then at some point I’ll improve.

I predict that I will be delivering positive ideas to develop your thinking and framing of the world around you. There will be subtle nudges towards your creative and curious nature.

I won't be filling these emails with links to give you more tabs than you already have. In fact, for each link inside an instalment I will donate £1 to charity, so either I won’t send any links or charity will do really well.

(This does not include links for supporting factual reference and links to concepts I've explained elsewhere to help you navigate my thoughts)

I considered calling this ‘curious comforts’. If you think you’d prefer that let me know.

And now on to the concept for this instalment.

Is your work better than you think it is?

Often I have grand ideas. These are things I really want to get into the world and they have various intricacies to be understood in their perfect form.

They also have some simpler fundamental concepts that can be summarised in a short format.

I can wrestle with them for a long time trying to work out how to explain every particular harebrained part of my idea in it's truly complete and complex form without leaving things out. I often add some things but confuse even myself trying to explain what's going on and give up. Other times I belatedly publish something that I'm not happy with and I feel doesn't really do it justice and no one will like it.

This is seeing things from my point of view. I know there is more left unsaid.

For a reader/listener they have a novel idea delivered to them with an extra parallel that help them understand further.

Example

A friend who writes regularly said he often gets told that someone likes a piece of work he was unhappy with. We discussed it and found that he had a grander idea for the work that he hadn’t wrestled into a single post, but actually it still made a useful point for a reader.

Realising that there is value in anything that is new for others but perhaps not for oneself is a difficult concept to grasp. This sounds obvious but it really isn't.

Analogy in italics

Imagine you are Apple and you have a crazy new version of the iPhone with insane new features and it's great. Instead you ship out a version with technology from 3 years ago into the market. You feel like no one is going to care about this old tech. Consumers have other options with next level blow your mind features to buy.

You feel thoroughly disappointed and might as well not bother. You stop releasing things and you go bust.

That is what it feels like to a writer who has advanced her ideas beyond what they have written.

Realisation

The difference is what feels like old stuff that no one cares about is actually new. Other writers are delivering completely new ideas in their blogs/books etc.. but they aren't the same things you are thinking about. You are not in competition with. They have different elements to what you're talking about so there is nothing to worry about.

I have put off writing for ages because I'm both a perfectionist and I seem to have ADD which means I have endless ideas.

For every blog post I write, it grow legs which require another 5 blog posts to tie the whole concept together. Whilst I'm quickly writing notes on those new ideas, each of those sprouts extra legs and I already have a book on my hands. I'm one hour in to my blogging journey and the gravity of what I have to do is much too much and I give up.

Conclusion - Just do it

So I'm getting comfortable with not explaining everything to the Nth degree. Finding satisfaction in imperfect (but completed) things.

• A novel approach that doesn't end up with a novel.

• Voicing my ideas instead of waiting to find my voice.

• Writing my thoughts instead of overthinking about how to be right.

If you're creative and battling with a similar concept, let's be honest, at this point you are capable of drawing any parallels you need for yourself. I really hope this helps you and it's certainly helped me.

To clarify my thinking is the point of writing after all.

This took 24 minutes to write instead of months 🥳

Onwards and upwards (and sideways and backwards and diagonally, followed by a wide right turn into a loop the loop and a punch the face, but you pick yourself up and carry on)

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If you enjoyed this it’s totally fine to keep it to yourself.