here's how i lost the biggest byline of my life

i could've been popular for writing about ai last year

One of the things I’m kicking and screaming at myself for, and I truly mean kicking and screaming, is having an almost completely polished essay about GPT-3 since last April, feeling like I didn’t nail the conclusion, and just letting it wither in Google Drive, rather than submitting it to magazines or at least publishing it on my Substack.

Let this be a lesson to you. Perfectionism doesn’t win on the internet. Power laws do. Get 80% or 90% there with your craft, then get over your fears and fucking press publish. Promote the fuck out of it, even if it’s scary, and then repeat. Maybe your work won’t get as much traction as you’d like, but at least you can lay in bed knowing that you’re a doer, not a let-your-darling-die-there-in-Google-Driver-er!

To all paid subscribers: here’s one of my most well-written pieces of writing. Please enjoy on my behalf. I can’t at the moment, I’m just kicking myself here still!