you can stick with it
Extremely silly mood and admission: Iâm mildly annoyed when I see so many others online stressing about changing hosters, tools and more. Completely ridiculous feeling to have, because that doesnât even affect me at all. Itâs not my life, so why am I getting annoyed by others constantly switching up their tools and services and talking about it? Itâs just another link to follow, a new look, a new navigation, or them using another software to organize. Whatever, no problem! Some of it is even interesting! So?
I might just be tired of watching so many people struggle and run in circles right next to each other, believing the next thing will finally be just right.
I see many people on this side of the web praise one thing as the thing to beat them all, the thing that finally âfeels rightâ, the thing that will finally organize them and make them more productive ⌠then they drop off, and come back with a new thing and start the spiel over again. Itâs todo apps, âsecond brainâ knowledge systems, website hosters, SSGs, blog hosters, writing software⌠itâs not that you do it, or that you do it; itâs how often and how many people seem to do that at the same time that I see, and how you talk about it. It seems to be so widespread in this corner of the web.
Trying out new tools and things is generally cool and I love reading the hands-on experiences, but in this case, I just see people running through things anxiously with no direction seeming stressed and sad.
Everything is about feeling. âFeeling rightâ âfeeling lightâ âfeeling in controlâ âfeeling effortlessâ. Why donât you see it through for once? Why canât you decide on a tool and stick with it for a year or more? Switching the tool or hoster wonât suddenly give you more time, more discipline, more fun writing, like your own thoughts more etc. and if it does, itâs likely just temporary because itâs shiny and new. A few weeks down the line and youâre back where you started.
Iâm saying all this with love and care. Looking on from the outside, you always manage to ruin it for yourself. Youâll spend more time setting it up than using it, youâll develop specific shortcuts and code pieces and elaborate workflows to do this minuscule, unimportant little thing you somehow obsessively set your mind on. Youâll install 50 extensions and themes to personalize. Youâll create 26 pages for different stuff. You create 5 different blogs for each part of your life. A week later, you wonder why itâs so damn hard and annoying to use, and why writing in it or keeping all of it updated is a huge time commitment and thereâs a mental barrier to doing it. Youâre self-sabotaging.
The way you set it up has become too hard to get back to after a break because you donât remember how it all works or have outgrown your elaborate design - reminds me of my deleted Notion account, actually. It becomes unintuitive and too hard to do over, so a new thing has to come along. A thing untainted by you.
It is intense how often I read about how âeasy and simpleâ this new tool you use is and⌠yeah, the default is, but you never stay happy with the default. You crave simplicity, grow bored of simplicity, make it more difficult, then you drop it, and then you leave. That is the pattern I want to point out.
At the same time, the view you have of yourself is ruining it too. You are constantly devaluing and putting down your past selves and what they created. You dismiss your own writing as yapping, rambling, trash. You think itâs old, itâs cringe, itâs embarrassing, itâs not deep enough, no one cares about it, it doesnât reflect your mental space 2 weeks later, so you burn it all down. You reinvent yourself over and over like an act of shame. Believe me, your stuff is great, and if you donât become comfortable with sitting with old thoughts that arenât how you currently feel, youâll repeat this no matter what tool you use.
If itâs none of the above, itâs that suddenly every tool has become too limiting and youâre off to the next that promises endless opportunities. You donât seem to recognize that constraints are actually advantageous for someone like you, so you can even focus on putting stuff out or writing that todo without constantly changing design, functions, tags or fixing bugs and burning out on it.
I understand you wanna do it all, you wanna have this or that option; but you donât even have the time, the material, or the patience and dedication to actually use those. For example, if you are struggling to blog now with a text box on a website that handles it all for you, what makes you think selfhosting and having to use the CLI to get some SSG to build it will get you to blog more? Itâs way more effort to post like that! You canât even do it without your computer.
Maybe if you wanna do all that and it doesnât work, the issue isnât finding a tool that makes this huge contradictory mess easier, but being realistic about what you can actually expect yourself to do and what a tool can reasonably accomplish.
Itâs prioritizing simplicity over shiny things until you know you can handle it, dipping your toes in instead of jumping right in. Itâs becoming comfortable with a public evolution instead of a tabula rasa. Itâs acknowledging that itâs probably not the tool holding you back, itâs something in your real life, your environment maybe, or your mindset. Or itâs simply your natural limits that you should honor.
Itâs realizing that maybe youâre actually okay with it, this is just your quarterly crisis, your depression, your anxiety or your mania acting up. Or admitting that youâre only forcing yourself to do something you donât even like because you like the idea of being someone who does these things, but hate the reality behind it.
Iâm fairly consistent in posting. In the end, technically all I need is a text box if digital, or a piece of paper if analog. I could âblogâ on all kinds of platforms. I could blog in a .txt file or in Obsidian. I could write it in the journal, I could write a huge post on X instead of Bearblog (but I wonât). The ideas and thoughts, the drive to write and the ability to see it through and actually commit to doing it are there no matter what platform or tool. I write these posts in my phone Notes app. I copy them into a text box and hit Post. Nothing more than that. I would write them on a typewriter if I had to. The same goes for my study notes in my almost-vanilla Obsidian, and my todo list in Finch.
Which, of course, is only my situation and perspective, but it makes me think you will all be fine staying where youâre at for a little longer, or permanently. Weâve all had to adapt or compromise. You donât have to reinvent the wheel, and you can allow yourself to slow down or even settle. It doesnât need to be perfect. You just have to stick with it.
Reply via email
Published