Do Bad Work

2022-10-15

Often we get stuck staring at a blank sheet. Not because we can’t think of anything, but because we can’t think of anything “good” enough—good enough for us.

It’s hard, dauting. We feel a pressure that we really shouldn’t be feeling. It doesn’t even need to be something that important, but it’s something that we are doing, and so we feel it has got to be done right.

It’s hard because we’re trying to do something good, something perfect. What if we didn’t try to do something good?

What if the goal we set was to do something bad? Lowering the bar as much as possible. What then? We can all do bad work.

The point isn’t of course to do bad work, it’s to get started. It’s to do something. Because that’s the only way to improve.

So, aim to do bad work. That way you can do (some) work. And the only way to become able to do something good, is if we keep trying. If we first do bad work.

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden