400 terrible blog posts

This is my 400th blog post.

Most of them are terrible. I keep writing them anyways.

This story, mentioned in Derek Sivers notes for “Art and Fear”, explains why:

“The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.”

Writing well is the most transferrable skill I can think of. Whatever I end up doing for the next 50 years of my life, writing well will allow me do it more effectively. It’s an investment.

So after nine years, I keep making pots. I feel like they’re getting better but it’s hard to tell because my standards keep getting higher.

Here’s to the next 400.