Writing is fun. Editing on the other hand…
I’ve been revising the pier draft I mentioned last week over and over. Fixing spacing, punctuation, word choice, etcetera. You could easily spend all your time editing and revising and never put anything out. A perfectionists’ curse. Luckily we’ve created a deadline which resolves that issue, mostly.
Each person finds their own balance between writing and editing.* Perhaps the pre-work you do can prevent a lot of editing and revision, perhaps not. Find your balance. I find that no matter how much I prepare, the end is always busy and disheartening. I imagine this is true for many arts; broad creation is one skill, managing the little details another. I know that editing is my weakness — it comes across in my videos, music, writing, whatever. Polishing is not as fun as carving. Having never sculpted before, I’m hoping this is an apt metaphor.
All this to say, it’s tiring work, and I have a lot more to do. Wish me luck.
*Brandon Sanderson talks a lot about this in his recent lectures.
Required (not really) Reading
This captures a lot of ideas I’ve mentioned recently and sums them up nicely.
Related; this tweet about AI — learn to tap into a vast knowledge vault to succeed in the future.
What does that mean for the world? Here are some “predictions”, many of which I am in favor of.
”this was all very fun, but if you’re trying to predict the future, you’re far better off identifying what won’t change, rather than what will.
famously, this was the approach bezos took with amazon. rather than predict the changing appetite of consumers, he inverted it — asking, “what won’t change?”
will customers ever want slower shipping?
worse customer service?
less selection?
the answer was no across the board. so all he had to do was deliver on those promises.”
“If all you’re chasing is money, you might find yourself rich in digits but impoverished in spirit. A good life isn’t about some sort of exit, it’s about actively being part of the world, making art, being with other people, not living like a degenerate addict. You don’t need infinite money for this. Just figure out what, for you, is enough.”
A playlist not my own