Having Big Things Happen
My friend Michael was kind enough to let me say something on his site, A Better Mess, as part of his Actually Getting Big Things Done series. I’m proud of how this turned out and was something I challenged myself to make (hopefully) really good.
As I mentioned in a vague tweet, rather than just hand off a final Markdown file for Michael to publish, we had lunch together to talk about where the ideas were going and then I did one complete rewrite. I did two more edits and a bunch of reworking after that, which is a very different workflow than how I usually write.
What I learned in that process was this: when working with smart people who are passionate about the same things, you’ll be able to get more Big Things Done if you submit to the process. It’s humbling to realize after some back and forth conversation that a thing you wrote is going to be better if you remove your favorite part. If you can get over yourself to make something better, you put yourself in a position to learn and like I talked about in the article, become ready to make big things.