I published a short post two days ago about a new feature in VS Code. After publishing, I thought why not record a short video about it as well? So I did that too. The video literally took me 5 minutes to make - start, record, finish, publish. The quality is not perfect but it’s done.

Later that day I was thinking about the experience. What helped me to publish a post and record a video in such a short time? I shared a couple of reasons on Twitter.

I was out running yesterday and somehow forced my brain to contemplate about the publishing experience again (usually my brain jumps from topic to topic during runs. I can’t focus it on a single thing). During the brief period of focus time I came up with a couple of more reason.

So four reasons why I’m able to create something and publish it are:

1. It’s my personality - I don’t mind making silly mistakes with the things I do in my spare time. Digging deeper, I think it’s the idea that it’s my time so I decide what to do and how much effort to put into it. If someone points a mistake, I will appologize, fix it and move on.

2. I gained some confidence in public speaking after participating in “This is Tech Talks” by @Thisis_Learning hosted by Jay Bell and Santosh Yadav. I feel now that participating in the livestream was a pivotal point that helped me feel more comfortable being live on camera. I totally recommend joining if you’re interested in speaking. Could be any topic.

3. I don’t do stuff for pleasing people. I create first and foremost because I enjoy it and to learn. If someone benefits from the things I do, I’m grateful. But that’s generally out of my hands. Sometimes a piece will reach the corners of the world, other times it remains unnoticed. I’ve realized long ago that results don’t depent on me. What depends on me is putting in the effort and publishing. That’s what I try to focus on.

4. Reading posts that motivate me to write, record, create and publish without holding for too long perfecting every possible detail. That doesn’t mean that perfection (or rather quality) is not important. It is! There’s time for that too but it’s okay if it’s not every time. Especially when working on personal projects. Ultimately, I want to experience on the joy of creating not the chore of perfecting. Examples of such posts are “Just write” by Sara Soueidan and “Just Put Stuff Out There” by Matthias Ott. Reading those posts starts a little voice inside of me saying “It’s okay to publish. You do it for yourself. You’re the one that benefits the most. So go ahead and do it.”

Writing these words gives me a bit of releaf. I’ve wanted to share these things but was holding back for some time. They are out not.

I’m going on vacation later today. Bye 🌴😎🏖️