Build with a funny brain
Though I was pondering on choosing a project in the post, Crafting Your Own Project, I realized the easiest way to start a project is to do something funny and memetic.
For instance, I have wanted to learn how to build a website by starting with a personal portfolio for myself. However, since it represents me and my work, I feel a huge burden when thinking about and doing it. I want every detail to be perfect. I have spent years browsing and designing, but have never completed a single website.
Today, I decided to build a website after my friend sent me documentation from Rough Notation. I found the animations super cute and wanted to see what they looked like in action. While I don’t have a specific project in mind, I knew that a website would be necessary to showcase the handwritten animation. So, I started building a website and had the idea to create a random but potentially useful meme website for my friend.
Why we should start with something funny?
This is the moment when I realized starting something funny is the strongest momentum in a short time and doing the cores for an MVP. Why? (1) The desire to create something funny drives me to start it instantly so I can share it with my friend. (2) The requirement for doing something funny is sooooo low.
Let me contrast the requirement of building a meme website vs my personal portfolio to elaborate on my point.
Requirement of building a meme website:
- It’s funny.
- I try rough annotation.
Requirement of building a personal portfolio:
- The angle of my photo needs to be perfect
- The design needs to be elegant and unique, not like any other portfolio.
- It can accurately depict my skillsets and past work.
- It will help me to get a good impression from recruiters.
- ….(This list goes on and on because I’m a perfectionist)
- I try rough annotation.
Do my friends look ugly in the meme? Great! My face looks horrible as well.? That’s exactly what we need. Essentially, no one cares about the font, the design, or the images as long as the meme is funny. I don’t have any pressure for creating high-quality work. Plus, I gained quick gratification because my friends will laugh anyway.
It’s similar to the principles of building a software MVP. You need to let go of your perfectionism and 90% of the initial design and try to scope out the simplest version possible. Most people have a hard time doing this not because they don’t know the simplest version, but because of other invisible standards and requirements in their minds that cloud them from achieving their main purpose.
Humor unloads our minds from fear of failure.
This is the 12th post from my 30-day writing challenges. I was inspired by Tung Nguyen, a friend who is a famous blogger. He overcame the fear of creation through mass-producing blogs and eventually found his own niche audiences.
