I agree with what you wrote. But then, why isn’t everyone writing as much as possible? What are the obstacles, and how to overcome them?
I notice that I write too many comments and too few articles, although on reflection I would prefer to write more articles and fewer comments. (I mean, “fewer comments” is not a goal per se, it’s just too many comments means I should have spent that time writing more articles instead.) Why is that?
First, comments are easier. I can stop whenever I want, like maybe even after the first sentence. That would be a lame article, but as a comment it is okay. Writing a comment is a lower-commitment thing.
Second, writing an article feels lonely. What if no one will read it? What if no one will care? When writing a comment, I am placing myself in the middle of a conversation. At the very least, there is someone I respond to.
The price I pay for this is that the comments are less impressive (you can give people a link to your blog, but you probably wouldn’t give them a link to the list of your comments), and instead of writing about any topic of my choice, I have to write on a topic that someone else has started.
I have noticed that people have a problem with setting the quality bar too high for themselves, and then go like “this new idea is not good enough for my blog, I will write it on tumblr instead… uhm, this is too lame even for my tumblr, I will post a facebook comment instead… omg, I will rather just tweet this”. Happens to me, too; the difference is that I do not have so many places to post, so it’s just like “not appropriate for LW… not important enough to start my own blog… uhm, forget it”.
I wonder if the proper approach (which would require corresponding technical infrastructure) would be the opposite: Everything you write should by default appear at the lowest-status place, but then you could move the best pieces to a more visible place (like on LW a personal post can be promoted to front page), ideally while preserving its URL to avoid breaking other people’s links. Or sometimes I start writing a shortform on LW, and then I am like “oh, this is actually quite long”, so I make it an article instead. Maybe I should never start with the idea of writing an article, and always try to write a shortform instead… and then move it if it naturally becomes too long.
Maybe I am overthinking it, and the ideal approach would be something like: make a blog, write whatever comes to your mind, random topic, random quality… and then maybe once in a year write a “Best of 20XY” article where you link the best pieces, and put a visible link to this article on your homepage.
I agree with what you wrote. But then, why isn’t everyone writing as much as possible? What are the obstacles, and how to overcome them?
I notice that I write too many comments and too few articles, although on reflection I would prefer to write more articles and fewer comments. (I mean, “fewer comments” is not a goal per se, it’s just too many comments means I should have spent that time writing more articles instead.) Why is that?
First, comments are easier. I can stop whenever I want, like maybe even after the first sentence. That would be a lame article, but as a comment it is okay. Writing a comment is a lower-commitment thing.
Second, writing an article feels lonely. What if no one will read it? What if no one will care? When writing a comment, I am placing myself in the middle of a conversation. At the very least, there is someone I respond to.
The price I pay for this is that the comments are less impressive (you can give people a link to your blog, but you probably wouldn’t give them a link to the list of your comments), and instead of writing about any topic of my choice, I have to write on a topic that someone else has started.
I have noticed that people have a problem with setting the quality bar too high for themselves, and then go like “this new idea is not good enough for my blog, I will write it on tumblr instead… uhm, this is too lame even for my tumblr, I will post a facebook comment instead… omg, I will rather just tweet this”. Happens to me, too; the difference is that I do not have so many places to post, so it’s just like “not appropriate for LW… not important enough to start my own blog… uhm, forget it”.
I wonder if the proper approach (which would require corresponding technical infrastructure) would be the opposite: Everything you write should by default appear at the lowest-status place, but then you could move the best pieces to a more visible place (like on LW a personal post can be promoted to front page), ideally while preserving its URL to avoid breaking other people’s links. Or sometimes I start writing a shortform on LW, and then I am like “oh, this is actually quite long”, so I make it an article instead. Maybe I should never start with the idea of writing an article, and always try to write a shortform instead… and then move it if it naturally becomes too long.
Maybe I am overthinking it, and the ideal approach would be something like: make a blog, write whatever comes to your mind, random topic, random quality… and then maybe once in a year write a “Best of 20XY” article where you link the best pieces, and put a visible link to this article on your homepage.