I don’t consider myself a natural writer (if that even exists). But I consider I strengthened my writing compared to 3 years ago.

Go back, read my LinkedIn posts and see how awful some of them are (please don’t). I cringe when I think of some things I wrote.

But everyone starts somewhere, and quantity eventually produces quality. I got a lot better at writing because I wrote a lot. If I waited to write the perfect post, I’d probably never post anything online.

This is similar to a story about a ceramics class:

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.

While the “quality” group was theorizing about perfection, the “quantity” group was busy improving their work.

If you want to be great at anything, you need repetition and learning from your mistakes - even if you cringe at your work after some time.

I don’t consider myself a natural writer (if that even exists). But I consider I strengthened my writing compared to 3 years ago.

Go back, read my LinkedIn posts and see how awful some of them are (please don’t). I cringe when I think of some things I wrote.

But everyone starts somewhere, and quantity eventually produces quality. I got a lot better at writing because I wrote a lot. If I waited to write the perfect post, I’d probably never post anything online.

This is similar to a story about a ceramics class:

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.

While the “quality” group was theorizing about perfection, the “quantity” group was busy improving their work.

If you want to be great at anything, you need repetition and learning from your mistakes - even if you cringe at your work after some time.