The merits of a shitty blog
A “shitty blog” in this case means a space you can write without worrying too much about the quality you’re producing. This, I think, is the benefit of daily blogging, where what matters most is that you write daily, to keep the flow going.
I prefer to write long well-researched essays about the many threads that interest me. Publishing daily is therefore not a practice I find comfortable. It feels like I’m shooting from the hip, with my eyes closed. And yet, there are definitely merits to it:
- it can free you from constraints
- you can take bigger risks
- you can express your ideas and quickly find out which land
I am therefore deeply gratified to find a kindred sprit on this subject, in Henrick Karlsson, who like me, prefers to write long form researched content, but has recently decided to experiment with what he refers to as his “shit blog.” Karlsson has been pleasantly surprised to find that keeping it, has been a worthwhile exercise:
What has delighted me about the shit blog is how abundant it has made me feel. I sit down and type as fast as I can, and the results—well, they suck, but they don’t suck that much. They have a certain breeziness and some insights, too—insights of a different kind than I have in the serious essays.
Having a place to stream ideas without overthinking them, has eliminated feelings of scarcity:
Which means I have underestimated my capacity! I can actually just sit down, without energy, without ideas, and if I frame the task in the right way, I can extract something of value from myself. The sense of scarcity I felt previously—feeling that to write the actual essays, I needed hours of high energy, which is scarce since we homeschool (sic) our kids, and I work, and the 2-year-old wakes up at night screaming, and feeling, because of this, that I needed to use my limited energy on good ideas—this feeling of scarcity has, I realize, kept me from doing more and better work.
I can relate to this. For me, the best approach might be a bit of both. Yes to the shit blog and yes to the serious essays. It remains to be seen whether they will both end up in the same place.