0. My experiment with imperfection

TL;DR: I am writing for self-exploration and fun. This is a low-stakes, evolving experiment with the goal to put out imperfect pieces of work on topics that interest me personally and professionally. Views only mine.

If you are reading this, you are seeing the birth of an experiment. Welcome! This is the first blog post in an experiment I am trying in line with my 2024 annual goals.

I have always loved writing. Unfortunately I only grew more and more sceptical of being able to write well, as I went through my late teens. I went from reading and writing rudimentary pieces of poems as a 12 years-old to not engaging with any literary work by the time I was a young adult. While the said scepticism remains fierecely intact, 2024 seemed like a good year to take the first step and take some power away from this long-standing notion. From my POV, this experiment is roughly equivalent to an introvert’s nightmare of hosting a last-min party of 20.

Motivations and Why now?

1. Be ok with imperfection and develop quantitative intuitions of input-output ratio

The goal is to spend an amount of time I know would roughly yield imperfect results. Neel ran a 15-min version of this exercise, Amber started with 30-min, I am yet to figure what that looks like for me. While I am supremely inclined to run a n-min version, I feel more in line with feeling this out as I go about this experiment. What value of “n” works for my imperfect output? Obviously this is a slippery slope as I can easily spend 180-mins, for instance, and still feel a post is perfectly imperfect because of perfectionism tendencies. I am aware of that.

Instead, I plan on making Amber’s and Neel’s starting point as my end-goal. Can I, let’s say, by post #5 only spend 30 min and feel comfortable putting out the output? And perhaps be excited to post with only 15-min input towards the end of this? That would be a phenomenal growth curve in this experiment and that’s exciting! I am timing myself for this one already; will continue to do that for the rest too.

2. To (finally) address the proverbial itch to create

Many may not know that I have had these bouts of itch to put stuff out (poetry or prose) at different points in time in life, but never actually got to it. I am hoping this public declaration of the experiment in an admittedly sparse corner of the internet is just enough to hold me accountable and help the experiment stick better. However, I want to remain cognizant of the fact that writing is just a reflection of the working of my mind at a single moment. A blog post, for that matter any piece of creation, is only a snapshot: like a fossil record. It is less likely to capture the complete state of my mind and the ongoing conscious and subconscious tinkering and sculpting of thoughts.

3. Well-positioned mentally and emotionally to run this experiment and gain valuable insight from upside risks

2023 was monumental in several ways personally (more on that in a later post!). Long story short, following an almost vertical learning curve, I prodded and poked enough corners of my mind to build the resilience and strength required for self-exploration experiments like these. So no better year than 2024 to give this a shot!

4. Inspired by coaches, friends and colleagues

I have had my brush with amazing written pieces created by friends, colleagues, role models on Linkedin and in other microcommunities, I always felt (and to an extent still do) that good writing is nothing short of wizardry. This was enough to keep a muggle like myself away from even giving it a real shot. Though I am pretty proud of blips of efforts I have made when the said itch is annoying to handle. For instance, for a couple of summers during university I was putting out sentence-long daily summaries of personal insights from research internship experiences that garnered a lot of giggles on Facebook at the time. But thats that.

Over the last year change in geographies, frame of references and preferences made this much more palatable. Specifically:

• Working with Katie Glass helped me in not-necessarily-tangible ways that ultimately created enough activation energy to kickstart this experiment
• Connecting with Amber and declaring intentions to some close friends has helped in making this just enough a novel, uncomfortable and exciting endeavour!

So what exactly will I be doing?

• 9 blog posts over the course of 8 weeks (May 1- June 30, 2024)
• The mantra: streamlined stream of consciousness. Not circulated for feedback prior to posting here. Topics would range from personal reflections and history to psycholinguistics and DE&I. (Note: these themes surfaced as a result of a 5-min timed braindump on topics that excite me; upcoming posts may not cover all mentioned topics)

Disclaimer:

1. A massive grain of salt. I would caution against using the blog posts in this series as citable information and generally encourage fact-checking and truth-seeking attitudes for all that you read here and beyond. Having said that, I am happy to discuss claims, facts and share resources wherever feasible!
2. Writing for the fun of it :) No intended audiences. Writing (especially of academic nature) is a crucial part of my professional life, and I want to be able to have a non-work relationship with it. This is my attempt at just that.

Time spent: 100min