What the world needs

I was having a discussion with some people recently about writing. It was quite cathartic. Everyone was sharing the kinds of things that their inner critic tells them. We were all encouraging each other to ignore that voice.

I mentioned that the two reasons for not writing that I hear most often from people are variations on “I’ve got nothing to say.”

The first version is when someone says they’ve got nothing to say because they’re not qualified to write on a particualar topic. “After all, there are real experts out there who know far more than me. So I’ve got nothing to say.”

But then once you do actually understand a topic, the second version appears. “If I know about this, then everyone knows about this. It’s obvious. So I’ve got nothing to say.”

In both cases, you absolutely should be writing and sharing! In the first instance, you’ve got the beginner’s mind—a valuable perspective. In the second instance, you’ve got personal experience—another valuable perspective.

In other words, while it seems like there’s never a good time to write about something, the truth is that there’s never a bad time to write about something.

So write! Share! Publish!

Then someone in the discussion said something I always find a bit deflating. They said they had no problem writing, but they’re not so keen on publishing.

“After all”, they said, “the world doesn’t need yet another opinion.”

This gets me down because it’s hard to argue with. It’s true that the world doesn’t need another think piece. The world doesn’t need to hear your thoughts on some topic. The world doesn’t need to hear what you’ve been up to recently.

But you know what? Screw what the world needs.

If we’re going to be hardnosed about this, then the world doesn’t need any more books. The world doesn’t need any more music. The world doesn’t need art. Heck, the world doesn’t need us at all.

So don’t publish for the world.

When I write something here on my website, I’m not thinking about the world reading it. That would be paralyzing. I do sometimes imagine that one person is reading it; someone just like me who hasn’t yet had this particular thought, or come up with that particular idea.

I’m writing for myself. I write to figure out what I think. I also publish mostly for myself—a public archive for future me. But if what I publish just happens to connect with one other person, I’m glad.

So, yeah, it’s true that the world doesn’t need you to write and share and publish. Isn’t that liberating? You’re free to write and share and publish for yourself.

Have you published a response to this? :

Responses

Luke Dorny

@adactio This is such a boost, Jeremy. I think about this every time I write and the brain runs these tricks every time. Thanks for sharing.

# Posted by Luke Dorny on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 at 3:21pm

Ange Chierchia

Je me reconnais tellement dans les différentes raisons évoquées par Jeremy Keith !

Je comprend que toutes les voix soient importantes et je suis tout à fait d’accord avec son point de vue, mais c’est vrai que j’ai vraiment du mal avec le fait de publier des articles qui concernent le développement Web, que ce soit Front-end ou Back-end.

J’ai moins de mal à écrire sur des sujets totalement personnels qui n’ont rien à voir avec le développement Web, même si je me dis qu’il faudrait un peu contre-balancer et partager plus de code, Mais là encore, quoi partager ?…

Un comble pour un blog personnel dévoué à ce sujet.

Bref, je vais essayer d’écrire plus au sujet du dev Web.

Joe Crawford

MovieBob has a new video series that is astounding and wonderful: “THIS MOVIE EXISTS”: GINGER (1971), THE CRUSADES (1935), HAPPILY EVER AFTER (1993)–all three are weird and surprising in many ways. I love learning about films at the edges of moviedom!

James shares his self-doubts in a way I find brave. Evening listening:

Asking yourself the question “what can I make next?” is good until it’s not. I am excited by the premise of building something new unless days pass without ideas; then, things get more stressful.

I can’t help with stress beyond expressing the fact that I feel that at times too. But when he shares:

But I am left feeling like I need to explore music from more 2000s rappers, and R&B music.

James blogs on tech nerdery but he’s also among the most raw sharers blogging right now. And heck yes I have hip-hop some hip hop recommendations. Truly many of them are more late 80s and early 90s but still. If you want R&B more generally that’s a far vaster history. You might want to his some soul music along the way. But James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder’s 1970s work, Marvin Gaye are all pretty perennial. James if you ever lack for musical recommendations I’ll try to step up!

Mark Evanier writes about Hollywood Boulevard in his post The Street of Disappointment. I remember well visiting World Book & News (now defunct, mentioned in February) on Cahuenga right off Hollywood in the 1980s and when I worked on Sunset Blvd in the early 2000s I would walk Hollywood on my lunch hours. It’s not the center of entertainment, but it is very Los Angeles and very specifically Californian. From Musso & Franks‘ classic restaurant to Frederick’s of Hollywood‘s huge selection of trashy lingerie (not to be confused with the actual Trashy Lingerie store further west on La Cienega). Oh, and probably those last two links would be inappropriate for work. I do love L.A.

He also mentioned that Junior’s burned down, which saddens me very much.

The Bodysurf Blog is working on a comprehensive history of bodysurfing. Excellent.

Pablo shared bravely this month. I have had the honor of having a fair number of people come out to me in the 1990s and I always felt honored when they shared that with me. And my ex-spouse as part of our slow-motion breakup learned a great deal about their own sexuality and I was always encouraging of them sorting out how they are and how they would like to live. People must be who they are. I’m proud of you Pablo!

And I have no place to put this, but I don’t care for these words: collab, inspo, sammie.

Jeremy Keith on sharing writing on the web:

It’s true that the world doesn’t need another think piece. The world doesn’t need to hear your thoughts on some topic. The world doesn’t need to hear what you’ve been up to recently.

But you know what? Screw what the world needs.

Even if you talk about a sammie collab–that might be inspo for others, like and subscribe!

Also, I don’t agree with every culinary opinion in this Slate piece about burritos but it’s worth a read.

The Web We Want is an intriguing idea, collecting feedback on what tooling and aspects we need and want on the web.

Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle is a thorough expression of what folks might do with Mickey Mouse from Steamboat Willie now that it entered the public domain.

And lastly, I loved researching the Coronado Bridge yesterday. I think the piece turned out well.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

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# Shared by Simon Cox :SEO: on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 at 3:56pm

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