Less than perfect

The post says the pressure to make every new piece better than the last can block publishing when attention is limited. It uses Gary Vaynerchuk’s early video blog, a Reddit answer, and a pilot podcast as examples of work that started badly, improved through repetition, and still found an audience.

It argues for keeping channels where quality expectations are low, so rough drafts can exist and later be refined. When standards get too high in one place, the answer is to find another place to start again.

Reading notes

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• Success can create hesitation to publish work that feels less than perfect.
• A lack of attention makes it hard to turn thoughts and observations into polished articles.
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s early video blog began with poor production quality and a small audience.
• Repeated publishing and practice changed that work into something with better production and a much larger audience.
• Comments on forums and Reddit are useful because people expect low-quality first attempts there.
• A mediocre first answer can become a better post after polishing.
• The pilot episode of a new podcast had technical problems and was still useful as practice.
• The second pilot went live even though the setup was still imperfect.
• Many successful things begin with work that is not very good yet.
• When expectations get too high, it helps to find another place to draw from.