Let’s talk about hating what you’ve made

Ambra Tieszen
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

Sometimes your work sucks. You try hard and you tweak it and you just aren’t getting what you want. At these times it’s easy to gaze wistfully at your favorite products, or scroll through Dribbble or Instagram and sigh audibly. Now we’re going to take that urge and turn it into something more supportive of you and your journey.

We’ve all heard the talk:

“Everyone is climbing their own mountain!”

“Someone else’s success isn’t your failure!”

You can almost see the endless abyss behind his eyes

But it’s hard to really internalize that when you’re feeling low about your talent or what you’re currently working on.

So take a minute. Wallow in your Woe Is Me, The Talentless Hack. Now let’s take a look at some things you’ve done.

Your worst enemy lives in your old work

Pick out a project you haven’t looked at in a minute. Is it so bad it makes you cringe? Good. If not, go back further. Once you find something you made a while ago that you unabashedly do not love, I want you to go back through how you made it and the decisions you made.

  • Is your process the same now?
  • Did your old way of doing things lead to those mistakes?
  • Is it simply that you’re so much better at [drawing the hands/writing cleaner code/designing workflows]?
  • How would you do it differently now?

The answer to at least one of these should tell you something:

If you don’t hate the work you’ve made in the past, you’ve stopped getting better.


Sometimes your hard work pays off

Now I want you to find something you’ve done that you’re really proud of. Even if it’s small. On this tiny piece, you really crushed it.

And yes. I do use this gif as an avatar VERY often.

I want you to write a comment to yourself as if you’re a peer complimenting your own work. Write down the things you like about it. Seriously. Tell this person how well they did, how beautiful it is.

Take a minute and bask in your glory. You made this thing. You did an excellent job. And you can do it again. It could be your side project, or your next project, or even the one that’s getting you down today. You are as good as your best work, even when your current work isn’t the best.


This is the method I use every time I get that nagging feeling that I’m stagnating. You’re not going to make a masterpiece every time, and it may take a while to get over this hump or out of this rut, but you’ve done good work before. It will happen.

If you’re feeling inspired, take a second whack at the piece of work you didn’t like. Use your newfound skills and knowledge and experience to make a better version. If all goes well, in another month/6 months/year you’ll hate it and have more improvements to make.

You’re a work in progress, and your garbage is just as much evidence of that as your trophies are.

Now here’s that inspirational poster.

Ambra Tieszen

Written by

Ambra Tieszen is a product designer & feminist killjoy. To her, design is a process, a delivered product, and an evaluation of success.

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