“You don’t need to be incredible at what you do. You need to be incredible at choosing the context in which you do it.” Well said.
I always appreciate new metaphors for making sense of the world. I had never thought of a physics/density-based one for competition and differentiation. So thanks for sharing that. Are you familiar with the blue ocean/red ocean metaphor in business? Your metaphor reminded me of it.
It’s also probably worth clarifying one’s criteria of success. If fame and fortune are high on the list, differentiation, uniqueness, and excellence are important. But if the expectation is personal satisfaction and joy from mere participation in an endeavor, that’s fine too. You discuss the importance of context in the above essay, and that strikes me as another way of adjusting the context/surroundings accordingly.
That said, I often feel paralyzed by the abundance of “competition” in online media. There are so many creative, talented, and ambitious people on the planet. It’s easy to succumb to imposter syndrome and wonder if it’s worth continuing to blog, write, record, or whatever. I wonder about these things regularly.
I've heard of Blue Ocean strategy and not got round to reading it. (soooo many books).
In-terms of success it is a strange one. I like the way of also adjusting the context for the thing that gives you joy.
100% on the overwhelming number of humans doing scarily awesome stuff that makes you want to give up trying. The above point about enjoying the mere participation I think is huge here. Also if you are reading and learning things for your own interest you can consider creating a blog or recording another act in the steps of self-learning and not worry at all about other. (having people read and respond is motivating though!)
Certainly my podcasts were things that I just enjoyed for the sake of doing them rather than trying to be better than others. As more people get into creation I think tools need to make it fun and easy to create so that you can enjoy doing it. They also need to connect you with your audience and help you niche by a topic or connect you to your friends and people that care about you.
Creation tools are destined to become more social because there are going to be more people we care about who are creating.
“You don’t need to be incredible at what you do. You need to be incredible at choosing the context in which you do it.” Well said.
I always appreciate new metaphors for making sense of the world. I had never thought of a physics/density-based one for competition and differentiation. So thanks for sharing that. Are you familiar with the blue ocean/red ocean metaphor in business? Your metaphor reminded me of it.
It’s also probably worth clarifying one’s criteria of success. If fame and fortune are high on the list, differentiation, uniqueness, and excellence are important. But if the expectation is personal satisfaction and joy from mere participation in an endeavor, that’s fine too. You discuss the importance of context in the above essay, and that strikes me as another way of adjusting the context/surroundings accordingly.
That said, I often feel paralyzed by the abundance of “competition” in online media. There are so many creative, talented, and ambitious people on the planet. It’s easy to succumb to imposter syndrome and wonder if it’s worth continuing to blog, write, record, or whatever. I wonder about these things regularly.
I've heard of Blue Ocean strategy and not got round to reading it. (soooo many books).
In-terms of success it is a strange one. I like the way of also adjusting the context for the thing that gives you joy.
100% on the overwhelming number of humans doing scarily awesome stuff that makes you want to give up trying. The above point about enjoying the mere participation I think is huge here. Also if you are reading and learning things for your own interest you can consider creating a blog or recording another act in the steps of self-learning and not worry at all about other. (having people read and respond is motivating though!)
Certainly my podcasts were things that I just enjoyed for the sake of doing them rather than trying to be better than others. As more people get into creation I think tools need to make it fun and easy to create so that you can enjoy doing it. They also need to connect you with your audience and help you niche by a topic or connect you to your friends and people that care about you.
Creation tools are destined to become more social because there are going to be more people we care about who are creating.