Today marks day 12/30 of publishing every day. And boy, OH BOY, have I learned some things.

What I’ve learned

1. To be fearless. For the love of god, I dread being an asshole to someone on the web who doesn’t deserve it. But I spend a lot of time listening and supporting, and if I want to change something, I have to put my thoughts and work out there.

2. I’ve never practiced my writing before. As it turns out, practicing something makes you better at it! This really wasn’t obvious to me with respect to writing. Don’t judge me, my high school teachers hated my fiction, except for whichever Herr said “I think you meant rocket launcher, not luncher”. Kudos bröther, your deference is held in high regard.

3. I have amazing friends with unique perspectives. They know magic words which unlocked entire trains of thought that simply didn’t exist before.

4. Imagining the future is super important for my happiness. Writing and publishing are powerful upgrades to that.

5. Learning to publish essays helped me ship code. I would never have shipped Hör Nicht Auf without writing about it on the same day. And it was good enough, because I’ve used it every day since, and a couple of friends have, too 🖤

What I haven’t learned

1. I lack discipline for “simple” things. The Plan™ was to write in the morning, at the kitchen table, with a nice cup of coffee. Instead, I’ve been writing in the evening, after work, sometimes juuust before midnight. On the bright side, I’ve managed the hard part of actually doing it. The achievement feels great every single time.

2. Don’t smoke weed before you’ve hit publish unless you’re a god damn wizard (or if it’s, like, your medication).

I’m very excited to continue writing and looking forward to reflecting on this post in the near future :)