It’s Hard to Get Out There and Suck

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
― Ira Glass

That quote is all over the Internet, and for good reason: Glass tells it like it is. You’re going to suck when you try something new, and I have a manifesto about this when it comes to women and academics. When my kid was playing hockey, I used to tell him that it’s good to fall down because that means you’re trying. I try to remember that myself.

It’s hard, though. I like to think that if I’m meant to do something, I’ll be great from the get-go; if I screw up out of the box, then I should simply move on to something else. And yet, I know that everything is hard. Even things that come easily have a limit. I could read before I went to kindergarten, but darned if I can understand poetry.

So this is my inspiration. It’s all about keeping the butt in the chair and getting to work. Right?