“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit”
Richard Bach
One of the most common ailments that affects people is writer’s block. It’s always lurking when you’re about to start writing something new. All of a sudden, you have no idea what to put on paper. And you find yourself staring endlessly at a blank computer screen or notebook. It’s as if all your ideas just can’t come out of your head
Seth Godin, who has written a daily blog for the past 10 years, is often asked how to overcome writer’s block. And what he responds with, “Well show me your bad writing.” And nearly never does anyone have anything to show. Because it’s not that people have trouble putting down ideas. It’s that they feel as if their ideas aren’t good enough. That there’s still more they need.
But the reality of the situation is that, it’s actually not too hard to turn bad writing into good writing. People can help you with that. Even you can keep reviewing your own essay. However, there is no process to turn no writing into good writing. And we often prefer to write nothing at all than to write something bad, even if that’s the pathway to good writing.
And how often do we confuse this in our own lives? We want to find the perfect routine. The fastest route. The best performance. After all, we’ve always heard that quality is more important than quantity.
But I would argue that quality is more ever more important these days than ever. The problem is what the word “quality” is becoming. And why need quantity to combat that shifting perception.
The Quality Experiment
A photography professor at the University of Florida had his class split up into two groups. One group was told that their grade was determined by the quantity of photos they’ve taken. That is, the more photos they take, the better their score. The other group was told that they will be judged on the quality of their photos. That is, the better their photo, the better their score.
By the end of the class, the professor found that the group which was graded on quantity actually had higher quality photos.
Why?
It turns out that that while the quantity group was taking so many photos, they’d experiment with different lightings and techniques to see what works and what doesn’t. On the other hand, the quality group would spend all day trying to perfect their theory in order to find exactly the perfect photo to take. This led to the quantity group getting better results at the end of the day.
Photography isn’t something someone is born with. No one has the genetics to use the perfect shutter and sensors for a picture. It’s a developed skill. That, of course means it actually has to develop.
We think quality is this in-borne factor into our work. But just like riding a bike, we have to keep falling to get to a point that what we do is stable. There is no one that just starts at some craft and is amazing at it. But there are only a few people that are willing to be bad at a craft so they can get good at it.
Just Put In The Reps
When I first started working out, I researched everything I could the subject. The bio anatomy of the body. How to perform the proper reps. What exactly is the right nutrition to take in. It got to the point where I wasn’t just getting a baseline knowledge of safety. I was trying to find the model that could push me to my goals the fastest.
But ultimately, the only thing that really factored into me getting healthy was to actually start doing things. It was to lift some weights. It was to abandon junk food. It was to just put in the reps.
Those people who do get good at their craft, do it because they put in the reps. And it’s because they aren’t afraid of being judged as low quality. They’re just worried about improving. And they know the more they try, the more they’ll grow.
Theorizing all day on how to do the perfect push-up is nice. But it’s meaningless unless we actually do the push-up. Moreover, it’s not like knowing the biomechanics of a push-up makes me the master. It is often only when we actually try the activity that we are able to execute it well.
Remember that it is true quality is more important than quantity. But it is only through quantity that you actually get to quality in your work. Keep putting in the numbers. Be ok with failing and adjusting. Just imagine you’re being judged the amount that your produce. Eventually your craft will improve to a point that it is of a high quality.
