Before I publish or share or create anything—I want it to be subjectively perfect.
I obsess over the smallest of details and will stubbornly refuse to ship until I either exhaust my list of details or myself.
And even when I exhaust myself… I still oftentimes won’t ship. In fact, I’ll use it as an excuse to further delay projects.
Most recently, I’ve been recording videos. And my goal is to keep the process as simple as possible—for the reasons I just outlined. One platform, one message, one take.
And of course, like clockwork, my social media algorithms have suddenly started feeding me video optimization content.
Things that talk about angles, and lighting, and transitions, and iPhone camera settings, and titles, and subtitles, and hashtags, and music choice, and captions, and hooks, and triple hooks, and the god hook, and green screens, and editing tips, and virality hacks, and…
…And this is exactly why I stopped making videos before.
My current mantra is this: reject optimization at the outset.
…Simply get into a rhythm producing content in a way that’s aligned with me—not the algorithm.
Not that there’s anything wrong with playing the social media game… just that it’s not for me right now.
The reason this blog has lasted as long as it has is because I’m not trying to hack anything. I’m not trying to optimize or broadcast or write for what ranks well on search engines.
I’m writing for myself—in hopes that it also might help others.
And I need to remind myself that these videos are going to serve the same purpose.
Onward.