Why I Don't Write Posts

Table of Contents

• The Vicious Loop
• Personal Example
• How to Break Out of This Loop?
• Conclusion

The Vicious Loop

You won't believe how many times I've had ideas for articles/blogs to write about but don't follow through with writing them due to the perfectionism-imposter loop:

Fig.1 - The perfectionism-imposter loop (from now on, source will be hyprlinked above).

 

Personal Example

1. I want to write a blog about how I've found a way to easily share/pass global variables across multiple python files.

2. I realize that the notes I've done for this are not polished enough for a blog post.

3. I tell myself that I won't publish anything unless I completely prepare the notes and the structure of the blog (perfectionism).

4. I don't return to these notes, as the burden of polishing what I wrote is too big, so I end up not publishing anything (procrastination)

5. When and if I decide to return to the notes/blogs, I overwork myself with very small details, such as spending 10 minutes to find that I can write   to leave some space between paragraphs (over-functioning):

   

   Fig.2 - Example of perfectionism/overfunctioning).

    

6. After I finish writing the blog, I contemplate how I took so long to write something that's not polished enough like other blogs I see (imposter syndrome).

7. So, I decide that future posts will be more polished (perfectionism).

8. Thus, the loop, continues.

 

How to Break Out of This Loop?

Just, write the post.

Just, finish your work, even if it's not polished enough.

Just, share your work, even if others have done "better" work than you; You do this for yourself, and because you believe someone might benefit from what you write, not because you want to show off and compare yourself with others who've written "better" blogs.

TLDR:

Conclusion

This post serves as a way for me to break this vicious cycle and as an encouragement to write about my findings throughout my learning journey one day :].

Let me know what you think, and what prevents you from writing posts <3.

Comments

[Dave Smith]

I love this advice. I find that most of my posts happen in one or two passes. Just going from brain to fingertips, then spellchecking.

[OdyAsh]

And that's completely normal and expected. The "perfectionist" part of me however will say something like: "you don't have the time to go back and edit the post, so you might as well write it properly from the get-go"

Thanks for your thoughts btw <3