If you feel that many of the articles on this website seem — shall we say — a bit rough around the edges. Lacking that final polish.
Then don’t worry. You’re not being rude. Or judging harshly.
That’s exactly how it is. And it’s quite deliberate.
In fact, I’m actively hoping you’ll have noticed all sorts of spelling mistakes, and dodgy turns of phrase in the things I’m sharing. Because that means I’m getting it right.
Maybe you’ve spotted the times where I’ve repeated a point unnecessarily. Or where a train of thought has trailed off without really getting anywhere useful.
Certainly you’ll have realised that I could do a lot more to tighten things up. To really boil down the sentences and concepts to be much shorter. The absolute core of what they could be.
If any of this bothers you, then I apologise. Frankly, it bugs the hell out of me too.
More than that, it’s painful for me to look at. Or even simply knowing that it’s there in past things I’ve written.
So why do I not only put up with this, but actively embrace it wholehartedly?
(Or at least I’m trying to. So this is written as much for me as it is for you. It’s both reminder and encouragement to keep going. Because I’m constantly in danger of ‘failing’ even though I know it’s the right way to go)
It’s a feature, not a bug.
I’m deliberately leaving these things unfinished.
Deliberately putting versions of my ideas out there as soon as it’s clear what they are. And deliberately resisting the urge to polish the arguments or the words or the structure.
There are at least three reasons for doing this. And they all help me escape the critic inside my head and ship more valuable work. Or to improve at this game of writing words and sharing ideas faster.
Here’s how it works:
Writing like this (or any other creative effort) is not a linear game of effort in and out.
When I aim for “80% good enough” like I’m doing here, I’ve got enough of the quality and concept in there that the reader can see what the idea is at its heart.
And most of the time, the core idea is what REALLY matters. As long as the writing is clear enough to get the point across then all the elements of style are (merely) nice to have.
You can hopefully get interested enough that you read through it without getting too bored.
Polishing things to a final finish takes WAY more time than the rest.
Getting something to 80% of its maximum quality might only take me an hour (purely theoretical example). Then polishing another 10% until 90% quality might take several extra hours on top of that.
And if you want to go further still and add that final 10%… Well, you’re taking more and more time still for ever diminishing returns.
If I know I merely need to get the core idea of what it is in front of you, then I can take way less time per piece. That means I can get many more pieces of value out there in the time available.
A second reason is that more repetitions also equals more feedback.
Since ideas are what REALLY matter I’m throwing more of them out there to spark responses and reactions. This gets me a clearer steer on which ones are valuable.
A third reason is that there’s a compound interest process going on here too.
Every additional repetition I do is another chance to improve my writing skills.
If I choose to put out 10 ‘decent’ pieces in the time it would take me to finsih 2 “perfect” ones then I’ll have advanced my base skill level a fair bit in those 10 pieces.
Not so much in 2. No matter how good the pieces themselves end up being.
So, over time, my “80% done” level becomes better than “perfect” for the parallel reality version of myself who got almost no practice.
So — although it pains me to leave things this way — it’s way better for me to avoid adding that final polish. In the long-run, leaving things rough and unfinished is more valuable to me. And more valuable to you.