Over the past couple of years I’ve not published a thing on this blog. I’ve written a lot in that time: emails, text messages, random notes, half finished song lyric ideas, a couple of scenes for a tv series, a few draft posts for the blog, but nothing that I’d willingly publish on this site.
Where I started
Just before Covid became a part of our normal world I felt the urge to be productive. To create, to publish, to share the work. Then the whole first lockdown thing happened, my world got a little shaken up, and that energy petered out.
Or to be honest, the fear kicked in. Fear of what other people might think of me. Fear that I might come across as a muppet. Fear that although I’ve got many years of designing & building stuff for the web, that the imposter syndrome I have isn’t a delusion and I don’t really know what I’m doing - and the true horror, that I’ll be found out, exposed.
Fear of what other people think of me has been a large driver in my life and career. Something I didn’t understand until recently, and something I’m willing to now face head on, and finally do something about.
Where I’ve got to
Thankfully, although the fear has kept me from publishing stuff, I’ve not been idle - progress continues on Sharetheirday, I’ve been fortunate to have a friend work with me on the code side of things and keep me accountable - not only stopping me from spinning my wheels, but keeping me honest about what it’ll take to get it live and in peoples hands for real.
I’ve also been reading and learning a lot about human psychology, trying to wrap my head around various different perspectives on subjects like individual potential, productivity, and persistence.
I deleted all my social media accounts a couple of years ago and although I was glad to free myself of the often snarky and negative cesspool that places like Twitter have become, I found that I missed finding inspiring writing and individuals.
Subscribing to a number of newsletters has been a great help, and the writing of people like David Perrell, Linda Zhang, Farnam Street, and Ava from bookbear express have both encouraged and inspired me to start writing my thoughts down again.
Where I’m going
I'm trying to build a habit of writing more. More writing in public (thanks for the consistent message in my inbox David!), and more using this process to explore ideas & and thoughts around building products, including all the various parts involved - from customer discovery, ideation, design through to development, delivery, and the business side too.