Don't Rush Your Ideas

The world is getting faster. Wide access to high-speed internet combined with free tools for almost every area of content creation has led to the decentralization of platforming. This is practically a universally recognized truth, so I don't feel a need to defend it (if you disagree shoot me an email). Instead, I want to examine the effects of this on the culture of media and content creation as a whole.

"Content creation" is a broad category, so I won't try to examine each area in turn. However, I believe that there is one element of this discussion that spans the entire enterprise. Namely, the desire or perceived need to churn out content at break-neck speeds. Of course, this manifests itself differently in each medium. On YouTube it might be churning out reaction content every day with little to no real substance other than to say "this thing happened and it's bad! Let's all talk about how bad it is!". As for me, I don't run a YT channel and don't have any plans to, so I'll focus on the effects this has on the world of blogging and the written word.

Let's take Medium for example. You can watch video after video and read story after story on how to grow an audience on the platform. And what do most of them have in common? Something along the lines of, "you need to write catchy 'listed content' with easy-to-digest points to generate engagement".  This might generate clicks and fool the algorithm, but are we really fooling anyone? Deep down we all know that there are two core principles in content creation– focus on quality & consistency is king. If this is so, why not strive for these instead of churning out post after post of recycled listed garbage? Well, I think this takes us back to topic of this article. Speed.

I won't pretend to know how long it takes to write, script, record, and edit videos, but I do know how long it takes to write. For me it often takes an awful lot of time. Finding a topic, crafting an argument, ensuring that the flow is consistent throughout, testing my hypothesis against other ideas, the list goes on and on. In other words, it takes a lot of work. The question then becomes whether or not this is a problem, and how you answer that will be determined on your mindset around content creation. It's easy to be lured into thinking that the only way to find any success online is to generate a post a day endlessly until you die, and I think that's a lie. To work yourself at that pace not only will suck the joy out of your work, leaving it a lifeless husk on the ever-growing pile of content written by others laboring under the same delusion, but it will also make you sacrifice quality on the alter of expedience. That's option one, but there is a better way.

It is my firm belief that the way out of this cycle for many of us is well within reach. Simply step off of the hamster wheel and let your ideas mature. Don't succumb to the pressure of having your new post ready to ship today. Step away altogether if you have to. Go for a walk and clear your mind. Go write something else just for you. The post you're reading right now is the direct result of me needing to give another project the time it needs to develop. I'm halfway through the post that I originally planned to release next and I hate it. I love the idea, but it's not taking shape the way I want it to. And that's ok. Instead of rushing out a half-baked article and doing it and you a disservice, I'm going to sit on it for a while and let it ruminate in my mind a bit longer. My hope is that the end result will be something of much higher quality, and that's what we're all really striving for.

That's my hope for you. If you are a content creator in any way– whether that's professionally, as a hobbyist, or you're just starting out. Don't bend the knee to the lie that you have to sacrifice your artistic integrity to the gods of the algorithm. It might take us all a bit longer, but we'll be much happier people as a result.