Being bad at something doesn’t mean you’re not meant to do it, it’s proof that you’re still learning. The only people who never make bad work are the ones who’ve stopped making anything at all.

Don’t confuse consumption with creation. Scrolling through people’s “perfect”, finished work might feel productive, but it only feeds your self-comparison. Inspiration has a half-life that decays the longer you just sit on it. Use it fast or it turns into envy.

If your taste never outgrew your skill, you would stop improving.

You’ve already imagined this version of yourself who can do something well, but you just can’t seem to actually become that person. But this is simply the natural tension of becoming. To try to skip it is to avoid the work of existing consciously.

We’ve become fluent in the language of aesthetics without ever learning the patience that mastery demands from us. Pinterest boards, Substack articles, Youtube video essays—all work to refine our tastes, but they don’t train the patience or tolerance for failure that we need.

And it’s not simply comparison that’s the problem, it’s compression.... See more

Maybe our taste develops first so that we don’t settle too soon. Maybe the gap between who you are and who you want to be is supposed to be frustrating. You can’t imitate your way out of it, and there’s no way to rush through it. You just have to stay there for a while, stuck between admiration and ability.

Keep your drafts offline, don’t post your work-in-progress, make things no one will ever see. That’s where the real progress happens.

We’re exposed to more art, writing, music, and aesthetics in a single week than people used to see in a lifetime. And this exposure only breeds discernment. The more you see, the more you know what “good” looks like long before you could ever emulate it.

It’s why most people quit before they ever get good. Not because they’re lazy or lack discipline, but because they develop taste before they develop skill. They already know what “good” looks like, and it makes the process of getting there unbearable. You can recognize rhythm, tone, precision, but can’t reproduce it yet. You can tell when your work... See more