The Curse of Compressing Reality ⇥ signalvnoise.com

Noah Lorang (via Shawn Blanc):

Any creative endeavor is highly non-linear, but the sharing of it almost always skips a lot of the actual work that goes into it. That’s ok; a clear progression makes for a good story that’s easy to tell. But don’t judge your reality against someone else’s compressed work. It’s ok if it takes you a day to make a cutting board like one that someone made in six minutes on YouTube; the truth is it probably took them a day too.

As I watch the traffic on this site rocket upwards one day only to take a dive over the following days, time and time again, I must keep reminding myself that the success I’m so amazed and proud of Blanc, and Gruber, and others for achieving is the product of a lot of work and a lot of time. But, while I don’t write Pixel Envy for the most readers — only the best, like you — it’s hard to stay motivated when one great week is followed by a lousy one. It’s probably my fault, or the fault of the season, but I must keep reminding myself that Blanc probably had (and has) crappy weeks himself, and what keeps him motivated is knowing that he does great work. I want to do great work for myself, and for you. That’s what motivates me to keep going.