Getting started is more important than being good

I’ve made some changes for this year. I’m trying some new things like starting a website where I can write and starting a new instagram around things I’m actually into. What I think I haven’t realised, however, is that I haven’t actually produced that much content. I think this is due to me wanting my content to be good, and good for me has a higher bar than I think I’ve come to terms with. Maybe this isn’t a good thing. Maybe I should let go a bit of being good and just be good “enough” that what I write or post could potentially be useful to someone else, should they find it. 

First, let me explain what I’ve done so far. I ended the year by researching how to make a website because I was intrigued by the idea of posting online and was left with a couple of options. They were, in no particular order; Squarespace, Ghost and Substack. I tried out some different options like Framer as well but these three were the primary ones I considered and coincidentally they were also the first few I actually found out about. 

So, first of all, I could have just skipped an entire research process, consisting of a few days, and instead have picked one of the three and saved myself a ton of time. In fact, this was what most sources/videos on the subject said to do. That it didn’t really matter what you decided to start with, like at all. Maybe later, if your page started getting some traffic, it would but if so, you could probably easily migrate to your platform of choice. Nonetheless, despite this advice that I now wholeheartedly agree with, I decided that I probably should do my own research and not just take their word for it. I lost some time and ended up in roughly the same place. Not a big deal. I might even have learned something in the process. 

I then tried both Ghost and Squarespace in turn (they have free trials so you can see how your website would look). All in all, they were pretty similar and one day I liked my Ghost site more, the other the Squarespace site seemed like the better option. Despite it obviously not mattering, I struggled to actually make a choice and tried to consider all the variables involved. 

This is something I’ve come to know as the Fredkin’s paradox.

Fredkin's Paradox: Confronted with two equally good options, you struggle to decide, even though your decision doesn't matter because both options are equally good. The more equal the options, the harder the decision.

I got this from Morgan Housel’s essay “100 little ideas”. Very interesting, I recommend it. 

Anyway, this became some sort of procrastination as I spent my time tweaking and researching both of the sites instead of just choosing one and being happy with my choice. Then I could have actually started to write, which was what really mattered. 

Finally, I chose Ghost because it was cheaper and made me feel better about myself. This is because I felt Ghost had more of a reputation as a harder site builder where you actually had to know a little bit more about computers. In reality, I didn’t really mess with any of the harder stuff in Ghost. I tried to (which probably was another form of procrastination as it really would have just made the site look better which would be inconsequential right now anyway) but decided that I didn’t need it. 

I wrote about two posts in Ghost and then didn’t really write that much for about two weeks. Why? My site finally looked good, what was stopping me? I think I had spent way too much energy and brain power to make the site looked good instead of actually making it good, writing some good content. I had become bogged down in the complexities of website building instead of focusing on the simple yet perhaps hard work of actually writing regularly. On top of that, writing in Ghost didn’t feel that great. I don’t know if that’s the platforms fault at all though. What I do know is that the emails with my posts (which is a feature in the Ghost plan) ended up in my spam folder. 

At this point I had created my own Substack, which is actually where I wrote my first post that I then just transfered into Ghost. I realised that most of the actual writers that I know of had a Substack. I started to wonder why and slowly but surely got convinced that this was a great space for writers. Everything is simple, it’s easy to get started, easy to get writing. On top of that, writing in Substack feels good. I don’t know how to describe it. Perhaps it’s just my feeling right, maybe it’s the extra Vitamin D + K2 I took this morning. I don’t know but it does. 

So, I’ve paid for Ghost for a year and I’ve realised that everyone who actually writes seems to be on Substack (other than the ones who’ve grown so much they’ve outgrown it). So that’s great. But it doesn’t have to be a problem. I can still use the Ghost site and my custom domain as a hub for my content. It looks great and might come up if someone googles my name. But I think I want to do my actual writing in Substack and then perhaps copy the content into Ghost. 

Truly, however, I wish I had just started with only Substack. It’s easy, it’s free and it will make you actually start writing. There’s no other distractions to keep you busy. If you can not be like me and just take the easiest approach to get started that would be great. It’s the consistency and writing quality content that is actually hard, and is what actually should be hard. 

I realise my Ghost site looked better than the Substack sites of some of the writers I like (Nat Eliason, Paul Millerd etc.) but that I didn’t actually care about that if I wanted to find and read some of their content. I realised readers, at least readers like me which I believe I’m writing to, wouldn’t care too much about how my site looked as long as it was accessible and practical to use. I also realise I don’t actually go on someones website to read their content that often. Maybe by using the Substack app I will start reading more but usually I just get the emails in my inbox (auto-forwarded to Reader) and read like that. 

My nice looking website might still be a good face forward for my online presence but I don’t actually think that many will care about how it looks compared to something like my Substack. The newsletter seems most important and that doesn’t get any easier than with Substack. Added to that the Substack newsletters didn’t end up in the Spam-folder which is an added bonus (although I don’t know if this will stay the case). 

So, I guess this post is about how you should probably just get started in the easiest way possible and find out if you like it, and if so, how much you like it. 

For writing, as long as you can get your writing to potential readers in an easy way as well as produce content in an easy way then you’re all set. It doesn’t have to be complicated. And it doesn’t have to be/look perfect.

You don’t need a great bed to have great sleep, you don’t need a perfect gym outfit to work out regularly and you don’t need creatine to get more muscular.

(sorry, couldn’t think of that many non-gym related examples)

I’m trying to think more like this in other aspirations that I have/things I feel like trying. I’m also trying to take it less seriously. Not that many people, if any, will se what I write and for those who do I don’t think they will have complaints about how my site looks (rather the content haha). 

In the last few weeks I’ve seriously begun to think about starting a Youtube channel around things that are interesting to me. It seems like an exciting idea, although scary. But if I compare that to me getting started with writing it is very similar. I realise no one will probably watch my Youtube videos (at least at the start) so they probably don’t have to be perfect and I probably don’t have to have the best looking channel art and production value either. This feels liberating in a way, and it puts focus on what actually matters: getting started.

I do feel like I have to invest some money in good gear, however, as videos filmed with just an iPhone is something I would never watch myself. In this case I think the new gear would allow me to reach an acceptable production value so that I actually like posting, so that I can, at least in part, be proud of what I have created. I think this will be hard to do if I film with just an iPhone. If new gear can make me at least like what I post perhaps that will be enough to keep myself going. But this might just be a similar sort of procrastination as with starting to write. Maybe I should just start. 

And maybe you should too. Whatever it is. Maybe give it a try. Or not. Your choice.