Time will Tell

If it’s not ready, it’s not ready.

Today, I wanted to finish a blog post that I’ve been writing for some time now. The theme is so interesting to me. But I couldn’t finish it today.

This creates a problem for me: Consistency is Key. That’s why I made a deal with myself to post a blog every Tuesday for the foreseeable future. But what is more important, posting for consistency’s sake or postponing it for better quality? By trying to answer this question, I remembered a story I read some time ago.

There was a group of university students—but what they didn’t know was that they were also test subjects for a study. Their professor wanted to find out how the best quality work could be drawn out of the students. They would engage in pottery. At the end of the semester, there would be a contest, and the best works would win. But not all students had the same goal during the semester. The professor split the students into two groups:

The first group was tasked with only creating one pottery item during the semester, but it had to be of the greatest quality. The second group was simply tasked with creating as many pottery items as possible.

Then, the day of the contest came around. When it was over, the professor was astonished at what he found: the group that created as many pottery items as possible, no matter the quality, created the best pottery items by far. It wasn’t even close.

It seems that by removing the thought of failure and adding the burden of consistency, quality improved dramatically.

This speaks for consistency. But even though this story is great, it’s more nuanced than that. Shaan Puri said that the gold of writing is found in editing. Your writing only becomes great when you edit it over and over again. This in turn speaks for quality.

But the story also illustrates one thing above all: quantity. The more you practice something, the better you become at it.

That’s why I’m posting this blog post right here. It’s not perfect, but I improved as a writer just by sticking to the deal I made with myself.

Is this the best way forward? I guess only time will tell—which makes it all the more exciting.