Practice Generosity by Publishing Your “Worthless” Work
I was recently listening to an interview with Seth Godin on the Afford Anything podcast with Paula Pant. Throughout, Godin described writing as an act of generosity toward others. He encouraged everyone to publish because of the value one’s words can provide to others. Godin acknowledged that he doesn’t have more insight than anyone else, but he ships more work than most. It’s due to the volume of work that he ships that he appears to provide extraordinary ideas.
Throughout, I got the sense that he truly believes that encouraging others to publish more often will make the world a better place. Through this lens, publishing transformed from a narcissistic endeavor to a practice of connection and kindness towards others. And it led me to an undeniable conclusion: the only way for my writing to be a valuable generous practice is for me to publish. Publish early, publish “worthless” work, and publish often.
Your journaling only helps you
The practice of writing has value on its own. Through writing you can interrogate your own ideas. Writing for yourself will make you a better thinker. Externalizing thoughts makes ideas stronger, fleshier. You’ll make novel connections of ideas, and can ground your world view through your words.
But the full value of your writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Writing without publishing is journalling. Journalling will help you to externalize and strengthen your ideas. But, until you publish, only you can gain the value of the connections and conclusions you’ve made.
If you hold back and keep your writing to yourself, you’re denying the world the value of your ideas. This self-consciousness is selfish. The world deserves the opportunity to hear what you have to say. Don’t just journal. Put your work into the world!
Publishing isn’t narcissistic. It contributes to the community
I used to think of publishing as a narcissistic practice. How could I think what I have to say is so insightful that others would spend their time. I was convinced I would be ridiculed for audaciously assuming what I wrote was worthy of their attention.
However, I needed to be more generous and kind to myself. And give the community a bit more credit. I’m not claiming to be writing a masterpiece. I’m only saying, these are my thoughts on this matter, and it might spark something for you. It might provide some small value. Take it or leave it.
When approached from this low stakes perspective, sharing my ideas became a conversation, rather than a soapbox. Viewing writing as a conversation with a generous and curious community, where everyone is spitballing ideas, to help us all make better connections of ideas, decreases the stakes.
Write for the tidbits, not the masterpiece
Shifting the perspective of writing to one of conversation, you must also view each piece differently. You may write an article as a whole, but the value is found in the smaller ideas within the whole.
Like many others, I read multiple articles daily. Much of what I have read is not groundbreaking top ten stuff. But it is also rare that I go a day without highlighting a passage that has sparked a new thought. It’s often enough to make me stop and jot down ideas on the topic. One line can nudge my worldview, expose me to new concepts, or help me to generate new ideas of my own. Through one passage, a random article can provide me with real value.
This point was reinforced to me in an article by Preetam Nath about how to develop a daily writing habit. In it, he wrote:
There’s countless articles about how to write a blog, how to get into or establish a writing habit.
And yet here I am writing about it.
Also, here you are reading about it!
As he said, I’ve read countless articles about developing a writing practice, but the doubt about my writing’s value still prevented me from publishing. It wasn’t until this article that I realized that the value of writing is not only in the whole; it was in the nuggets of wisdom that stick with you. Here was yet another article on writing, and yet I was drawing new inspiration from it! His writing had real value to me, even on a topic I’ve read so much about before.
Don’t be selfish, share your work
The community of writers and readers around you want to hear what you have to say. Your work will contribute to the conversation and the community, and provides real value to the world. And the only way for them to get that value is for you to share your ideas. By failing to publish your work, you’re denying others the value they might gain from it.
You may not be creating a masterpiece, but that’s not the point! The point is you cannot be sure of what small piece of your work might inspire someone to action or change.
So take Seth Godin’s advice, and view publishing as a generous, rather than narcissistic practice. There’s a community out there waiting to hear what you have to say.
