Imperfect

subvert popularity contests

Inspired by skryblans' the horror of too many readers and pockets' Getting trapped in the spin cycle.

TL;DR: Forgo likes, popularity, and readership for contact, survival, and partnership.

Expose yourself to your world. Others' varying perceptions of you makes you ever more immortal and vice versa. Yet, nobody knows anyone else. Everyone hides plenty from themselves and others too. There's space for bridging such gaps via imagination, inference, and otherwise. Speaking of gaps: if using your real name makes the difference between playing the game and warming the bench, forgo it.

Small asks are valuable, but agonizing over wording too much doesn't guarantee more frequent communication at higher probabilities. You never know what others are going through. Pauses, breaks, and waiting should be expected with the demands of everyday life. Create a culture in which sending and receiving less-than-perfect messages is more than acceptable. If at first you don't succeed: try, try again.

You can write as a hero, a villain, and every archetype in between. Chances are that you're not the best or worst person in your world, let alone the world. You can explore the vastness of the middle as much, if not more than, any or all of the extremes.

You can ask for what you want in ways people you care for find palatable. Show, don't tell, for even better results. Everyone eventually finds themselves with a critic or two. It's up to you whether you keep yourself down through (the possibility of) someone out there finding issues with your asks or utterances.

Write what's meaningful, not to loads of people, but to the few you want to impress. Discover how to be read, not by anyone, but whom you want to be read by. Could these adaptations change how you interface networks around you to realize your ultimate dreams?

Trending is a nice feeling for a day or a few. However, it doesn't get me the kind of co-creative partnerships that I see elsewhere in the space. Similarly, it's funny how neglected the underrated bleeding edge is for the seemingly omnipresent popularity contest. If you want to play the blogging game like it's social media, you can afford not only to socialize, but to look beyond the tip of the iceberg. Sure, people atop the pyramid are valuable for having gotten there. Are they most valuable for inspiring you, let alone for mutual success with you?

Stop gaming for points, start gaming for people. Save your click meant for an upvote then spend it pushing the send button for an email, DM, or other (newfound) connection. If that's too daunting, engage serendipity more passively: publish connections you want to make within your own domain. With enough persistence, you might just start accruing pleasant surprise after pleasant surprise. Discover others' thoughts and feelings, spinning them into more writing, remixes, and collaboration. Make numbers go up such that they incentivize you to iterate upon what makes your heart sing, ideally with people you cherish and love. Minimize insecure vulnerability, maximize secure connections.

Want to reach out? Connect with me however you prefer: