That Thing You Do

It’s harder than you think it is. Really, it is – it’s more challenging than you think it is because you’re measuring it against the wrong people. I know, you think that person who showed you how to do it, or you chase, doing it, that person is a lot better than you, and they’re younger than you or more experienced than you, or they’re somehow able to just possess the monstrous space brain that makes whatever it is you want to do impossible. Or maybe they’re talented in a way you never thought to measure yourself doing again but augh, you hate them and it makes what you do seem not so special, right, because you haven’t done much lately, or you haven’t done it there or wherever or haven’t made money for it or haven’t got many readers.

Your metrics are fucked.

Whatever it is you do, I am absolutely certain, certain, that I can find you maybe a billion people who can’t do it at all. A fucking billion. I am equally certain I can find you five people who have done something you love who can’t do what you do as well as you do it. The world is not full of Genki Sudos just waiting for you to fail so they can fix what you weren’t going to do.

There is something special in you, some alchemy, some conjunction of parts and interests that makes what you have to say, what you want to do, different and unique. You are not a single thing, not a single purpose, you are not a single task. Whether you’re a Sentai Accountant or an Infosec Warrior-Queen or a Space Brain Pianist, there is something in you that makes you you that is literally special.

Show us what you do, because we want to see it. Finish what you started because it’s worth seeing it done. Share what you know because none of us have done it yet.

Ten hours from now I’m going to look at this post and be embarassed for myself but that’s fine because it’s late and all that shit. I got myself read by thousands of people just by having the temerity to produce, and produce, and produce, and put it out there for an editor to put up when he needed space filler. You can show your friends the thing you made and I am sure that what comes of it will be better than what would happen if you didn’t.