goddessoflists

I've tried Substack, Buttondown, ConvertKit but I overall prefer Ghost(Pro).

Many congratulations to you!

One can dream :)

I used to collect ideas to act on later too. I still have several documents full of them, not to mention notebooks. Recently, I'm trying to stop looking for more and do something about an idea instead of thinking, "not now."

I'm using the rule of "do it now or delete it." It's quite a harsh rule, but life is short and I can't do everything, so I'm focusing on the things that will bring me the most joy and satisfaction of having done something good for others.

> I think the hardest part is just getting started, so I'm scheduling time each day to write something. It doesn't have to be fantastic, just something to get me moving forward.

You'll like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIDAWrUyjM4

>It is quite simple. Do you want to build something? Then go build it.

>You notice you lack information while building? Go read it.

>Not the other way around.

>Unless you want to read for the sake of reading/learning, which is also fine. It improves your general knowledge. But if you want to get something done, then of course, there is no other way except doing it.

I have nothing to add except that this is a beautiful comment that sums up my post way better than I could have myself. :)

This! I used to spend ages on organising notes and documents because I believed that would help me work better. I recently gave that up and now focus only on taking action, and I've gotten a lot more work done as a result.

Connecting meticulous organisation and having a "second brain" to productivity, I realised not long ago, has made us all focus on the wrong things. I understand that for some people, having things organized actually helps them function better but I wasn't one of them. I only thought I needed to be super-organized but I'm a perfectionist--what I needed was to just do things.

> There's room for validation of an idea etc., but (over)imagining what completion looks / feels like prior to execution can rob that drive to execute.

I think pairing sharing an idea with an action can help because you've already gotten the ball rolling. It's what I did with my magazine: wrote on my blog and also sent emails to the experts I wanted to interview.

I've tried both telling and not telling, and it hasn't made a difference. I've told people and not achieved the goal, told and achieved it, didn't tell and achieved it, and didn't tell and didn't achieve.

> I wonder if the author is doing more than writing about it.

I was frustrated with how little, proper and useful information there is out there about studying psychology and making a career in the field that goes beyond "study this, then this, then do this internship or that course, and get that credential" etc. So I started interviewing psychological professionals and launched a magazine. The second issue goes out tomorrow. It's the first time I've had an idea and acted on it so fast, which is what inspired the idea for the club--I was riding the high of actually having done something that other people found useful.

I fell in this trap often, so to avoid it when I decided to launch a magazine, I also took an action at the same time, one that would make it difficult to back out: I sent emails to experts asking for an interview, telling them it was for a magazine I was launching. It worked for me, but not every project might have such an action to go with it.

> But how actionable is most information out there?

I think it depends on our individual information diets. I've gradually curated my internet diet to avoid receiving and reading stuff I can't do anything about, so the stuff that does land in my inbox is often actionable. Might not be true for everyone.

> feel like some social media thing should probably already exist, where people find each other to take action together.

What I'm noticing is that the people who do take action are all connected locally and/or offline so I'm trying to focus my energy there. Meet people, take action outside the screen, offline.

> Maybe corollary to this is that if you can’t do any immediate action with it, skip the read.

This is what I do. I've been curating my internet diet a lot over the last four years or so. I guess it's a downside of the curation that what does land in my inbox is stuff that I can do something about.

Definitely.

The thing is, I'm already doing things whenever possible as an individual, but I've spent so long alone that I'm really craving the company that a community provides. I want to start and be part of offline spaces, hence the club.

I considered that too, but I'd like the group to exist offline as much as possible; talking about ideas isn't the same as acting on them.

I really didn't think very deeply about the whole thing before writing it; I was trying not to break my blogging streak. After looking at the comments though, I have a clearer idea. Might write about it today :)

> I journal every day and I try build experimental software projects what I think is valuable or interesting.

> For example, I love goodness, positivity, light and think on these things and reject what is not these things.

> So I try do things that are valuable to me and share them with others.

I really like your perspective! We're very similar in that regard.

> I recognise that it takes a lot of work to create something. You can't just know 1 thing or be good at 10 tasks to produce something to high quality, you have to do 1000 tasks you've never done before.

I recently discovered the idea of a minimum viable product and the whole "fail fast, fail better concept." It was a comment on HN that gave me the idea for The Metronome and I ended up launching the magazine in less than a month. I've never done something like it, but I wanted this thing to really exist, so I did what I new and put it out--and the response to it has been overwhelmingly positive. The second issue will go out tomorrow; I learned from my difficulties while making the first one and ended up needing less time to create the second one.

Perfectionism is a terrible problem, so doing things and getting better as you go is better than trying to be better before you actually do the thing, I believe.

> I wish I could follow through with projects I’m not getting paid for ;)

This was a problem for me as well, but this post by Oliver Burkeman helped me take action and launch The Metronome : https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo

We can't act on every single idea we have, but it's better to bring at least one into the world than have several world-changing ones gather dust in a notebook.

> My hunch is that this club won’t work because it fundamentally is just another distraction from the goal here: which is to actually do something. Just do it.

Hi, as I wrote in the comment above: I was in a hurry when I posted this so didn't notice that the obvious point was missing--that we meet to find solutions and implement them. I've added the edit.

And, yes, the solution is to actually do it--which I realised only because I had an idea for launching a magazine and then actually did it in less than a month. It was the first time I'd ended up acting on an idea so soon after having it, which is what inspired the line of thinking that ultimately led to the idea of the club.

> I feel the underlying reason for this is due to years of the education system drilling into our heads the value of notes and memorisations for the purpose of exam taking.

I was educated in India, so I don't blame the education system (for this particular habit). I'd been the topper in school and was fond of note-taking. I still keep a commonplace book because it's my primary hobby. I love collecting beautiful passages from books and the internet and notes help me simplify concepts for others--I've been tutoring kids for years and I like being able to take information and simplify it for others.

But the habit has gone out of hand when it comes to online note-taking, as I discussed in a different post: it's very-easy to copy-paste stuff, add a million tags, and feel good about it. I've since switched to taking notes by hand ONLY--and because that takes effort, I only take notes on the things I really want to remember. And they're succinct because then I copy just the gist, which is what's truly needed 90% of the time.

> I think once you “do things” though it’s a whole different ball game.

I started doing this sometime near the end of August and I couldn't agree more--a lot of good things have happened since. Oliver Burkeman's writing helped me get there: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo

Hi, author here. I think it can go both ways. You learn there's a problem, then try to solve it, then go back to learn more to come up with a better solution.

Or you can do something, find out it's not working, then learn more about it to fill the holes in your knowledge.

> They might appreciate their efforts more if they instead decided to take action on a thing

We also need to know that there's a problem before we can do something about it. You can't fix a problem you don't know exists.

> I really enjoyed the time and writing style of this!

Hi, author here. I'm glad you liked it--I don't get to hear this often. :)

> I had a bit of a laugh when the author described how they read and think too much and wanted to take action - then the solution is a club who who .. meet to talk about taking action :)

I wrote this post in a hurry because I'd have broken my streak otherwise and so didn't really spend much time on it. I just made a quick note and posted it online because I've recently started treating the blog like an open notebook rather than thinking that everything that goes on it has to be something I've thought about for ages and then executed perfectly; that helps with ignoring my perfectionism. I didn't think it would make it to HN. (I was hoping that would happen to a different post.)

All of this to say that: when I had the idea, I imagined us doing things and reporting on them, but I forgot to mention it in the post. I've added the update after seeing your comment, so thanks for pointing it out!

> How about doing stuff outside consuming Internet content? Then you are forced to interact with the real world, where taking action is the default.

That is the goal. Consuming stuff on the internet is just one of the things I do throughout the day and even there I've minimised it as much as possible: I've deleted almost every social media, I use LinkedIn with a timer (browser blocks in automatically). I'm subscribed to a limited number of newsletters and even then I don't immediately read them--hence all the bookmarks.

> Take it from somebody very recently recovered from the digital loop: I have lost tons of time ruminating while life flowed out the window, screen, etc.

This is why I recently started using my laptop and phone with a timer: I give myself a total of 4 hours to use both screens (although I don't count listening to music while doing chores as screentime--we're all big music lovers in our family). Of course, I can do this because I'm a freelancer and not the breadwinner of the house. All people I respect have told me that when I have this advantage, I should use it.

Funnily, having a timer has helped me get more work done than I did when I took laptop use for granted: I'm almost done with the second issue of my magazine in less than 4 days when the first one took 2 whole weeks.

> By the way, is spawning new tabs while waiting for a website to load in order to keep oneself occupied really a thing?

I used to do this a lot until I recently started applying the principles of slow living and doing one thing at a time.

> I am always torn between reading and not reading. I think reading energizes me regardless of whether I can effect change on the topic.

If it energises you/brings you joy, then why question it?

> Simply having awareness can be beneficial on some level.

It is, but what I realised at one point that there are just too many things to fix and you can spend your entire life becoming aware about them. I think it's better to choose a few or even one problem and go deep or actually do something. But, as I wrote in the post, that's something that works well for me. YMVV.

Edit: John Green explains this well in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bew3EMicf8g

> I’ve learned so much from not reading :)

Same here! Since realising that, I've not been so worried about reading everything I've saved, or even thinking that I have to read everything I come across just because "you learn something new every day." I graduated a year ago and have done lots of work and reading since. How different would my life have been if I'd applied even 10% of what I learn?

I still love learning stuff, but now--unless it's required for work--don't go looking for things to learn. I am doing much more as a result and I'm happier than I was when I simply spent my days learning.

I'm glad that I recognized that we (Gen Z) were growing up with this narrative pretty early on--if you get a job, you have to be best in the field. If you start something, it has to be big. Small successes or positive changes just weren't adequate. I wrote about this in more detail here: https://www.tor.com/2021/05/25/anyone-can-be-a-hero-in-brand... and I said it better in this paragraph than I can right now:

"Because the real world has never been saved by a few superheroes. It has always saved itself on its own, each person doing their own little bit. In the real world, although many people feel—and sometimes are—helpless because they’re not the “right” gender or race or caste or class, there are many, many more people who have made their own little impacts on the lives of others, be it buying groceries for elderly neighbors during the lockdown, running a lemonade stand to raise funds for cancer treatment, offering free therapy, teaching kids in slums, or distributing food to protesters. Our world is humanity’s collective effort, one big project that we always keep working on.

The problems all of us are fighting are too big to change individually—they are too massive in scope, with too many variables. But collectively we have changed some things for the better, and we’ve done it by being whoever we are and doing what we can, while also learning and taking tiny steps forward..."

Author here. These are also things I believe in, although it took several years of climate anxiety and therapy to understand that one person alone can't fix everything. So I've started focusing on doing some good every day--most days, it's the small things, like doing extra chores, babysitting the neighbor's kid, tutoring a little girl who lost her father recently, etc. These won't change the world, but at least I'm adding some good to it.

> MOST things you can read about on the Internet fall into this category

This is why I deleted almost every social media and am very selective about the content I consume, so the stuff that does land in my inbox is stuff that has scope for taking action--I unsubscribed from everything that talked about things I couldn't do anything about personally.

You should check out _Show Your Work!_ by Austin Kleon. I think it'll really help you with this particular problem.

Also oneless you're really famous and a lot of people are reading your blog, the chances of this happening are close to zero. Austin Kleon, who wrote Steal Like an Artist and other books, says that in the beginning, obscurity is good. You can make mistakes, experiment, change your mind.

I've been reading a lot about blogging recently, to help with my perfectionism. My notes on some of the best posts I found are here: https://chavanniclass.com/2023/08/14/16-learning-in-public-a...

It's my attempt at reminding myself of all the times that someone else's blog posts have helped me solve a problem or think from a different perspective about something that was bothering me. They've given me direction, purpose, reassurance. They've saved my life.

Your writing could do that for someone. We might not think that a simple tutorial or a list of thoughts could be life-changing, but things are unpredictable. You have no idea who will find your stuff and what impact it will have on them. The cost of keeping what you know to yourself is greater than the cost of being ridiculed. People will always find ways to put down others, so it's better to make something meanwhile, rather than censor yourself in the fear that it might happen.

Don't stop yourself from writing and sharing your stuff. It's one of the cruellest things I did to myself. I wouldn't want anyone else to think that they or their thoughts don't matter.

You've blogged in the past. Please do so again, for your own self (I'm assuming you wouldn't be "torn" if you didn't care about it) if not for others.

All the best, and I hope you do share a link here when you start writing again.

1. I'm terrified of childbirth and do not want to go through it. 2. Climate change -- I don't look forward to it myself and wouldn't want to bring more children to go through even worse conditions. I'll be adopting kids instead.

How to learn--speficically the six strategies identified by cognitive scientists:

1. Spacing 2. Retrieval practice 3. Interleaving 4. Dual coding 5. Concrete examples 6. Elaborative interrogation

www.learningscientists.org/ is a good place to start learning about these techniques.