What if quantity = quality?
Start repping out the things that matter (sharing your work).
My most debilitating flaw is that I’m not a perfectionist.
I’m the antithesis of staying within the lines and waiting to share something. The more ‘ready’ a poem, newsletter or TikTok is, the more scared I am of sharing it. Therefore, most people would think that what I post is rubbish.
Which most of it is (for now).
I’ve improved at rationalising my unorthodox creative process. And I’ve found that nearly all platitudes are true, except this one:
“Quantity over quality.” - Every writer ever
Utter rubbish, even more so than my work.
Quantity is quality.
You’ll be embarrassed of what you share before you’re proud of it
What’s one thing you did as a teenager that embarrassed you at the time but now makes you proud?
My thing was going on an ERG (rowing machine) in a one-piece rowing suit surrounded by strangers. For 2 hours. In a commercial gym. And I walked through my neighbourhood in it. Mind you, I had a coat, but my friends clearly still tell me that wasn’t enough to cover me up.
That was 3 weeks ago.
Why did I do it? The more seemingly embarrassing things I do, the less likely I am to become a perfectionist-procrastinator.
If I can confidently walk through an open room full of men thrashing weights around in a skin-tight lycra suit, there’s no reason why I should not post a newsletter that I know is not good enough yet.
Is that to say I wasn’t judging myself and felt like I was being judged for those 2 hours? Of course I was.
But I’m proud of myself now.
If you embarrass yourself online, you can find out why it happened.
But if you post something that has been polished to the point of blinding you, you risk never discovering why it worked. Just because something performed well doesn’t mean something similar will follow the same path. So why not hit publish on a draft that could do with some more editing?
Even more, if you don’t share anything with your audience, they’ll either leave or they’ll never tell you where you were yapping and lost the plot.
Still don’t believe me? A mathematical proof on why quantity = quality
To prove: Quantity (QTY) = Quality (QLY)
Given: An Artist riddled with perfectionism their whole life, a world where it is easier than ever to publish and get feedback instantaneously.
QLY is a function of Time (T) and Expertise (EXP), that is QLY = f(T,EXP) in the range (I’m better off asking ChatGPT to write this, [Insert Artist idol]), where QLY is positively correlated with T and EXP, that is QLY = EXP x log(T) + B (where B is your baseline level of QLY, a constant)
However, EXP itself is a function of Feedback (F), that is EXP = f(F) in the range (Complete beginner, Guy that rolls his eyes at the “Well actually” guy at the bar), where EXP=Feedback.
Meanwhile, QTY is a function of, once again, Time (T) and Expertise (EXP) in the range (The thought of starting something, Are you a business student that just found out about ChatGPT or are you just a prolific writer?), where QTY=EXP x T.
Therefore, we can only improve QLY (getting better as an Artist) and QTY (becoming more “productive” as an Artist), we must increase T or EXP. But as you can see, an increase in the latter is quickly subject to diminishing returns.
Therefore, we must expose ourselves to more F, which is a function of…
QTY! Where F = QTY. And so, EXP is a function of QTY, i.e. QLY is dependent on QTY.
Q.E.D.
Can’t argue with me now, can you?
Well, you can. That’s why I’m posting this — to get more F and EXP. And now you have to take yourself out of the perfectionism trap.
Even I can’t come up with a way to rationalise it.