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Why quantity should be your priority.
A thread for people who write, design, record music, program, play sports, or express themselves through any other media.
A thread for people who write, design, record music, program, play sports, or express themselves through any other media.
The biggest lie we've been told is that we have to choose between quantity and quality.
Quantity and quality are not tradeoffs. They support each other. Quantity supports mastery of a craft, and quality.
Firstly, by enforcing regular practice:
Quantity and quality are not tradeoffs. They support each other. Quantity supports mastery of a craft, and quality.
Firstly, by enforcing regular practice:
Today, @austinkleon wrote a blog post about quantity leading to quality (feat. @jamesclear and Ted Orland).
He writes, "The *frequency* of my work — showing up at regular intervals, without worrying about results — has actually lead to better results." https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
He writes, "The *frequency* of my work — showing up at regular intervals, without worrying about results — has actually lead to better results." https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality-the-origin-of-a-parable/
Secondly, preserving motivation:
Creative blocks happen when expectations of results get too high for one project to achieve. "This has to work, or I'm giving up."
So, make a lot of projects!
As @sivers would say, quantity prevents the failure mindset. https://sive.rs/2020-05-ff
Creative blocks happen when expectations of results get too high for one project to achieve. "This has to work, or I'm giving up."
So, make a lot of projects!
As @sivers would say, quantity prevents the failure mindset. https://sive.rs/2020-05-ff
Thirdly, encouraging experimentation:
"If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones."
—Ray Bradbury
"If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones."
—Ray Bradbury
For real world results, look at what @lindsayjeanthom and the #The100DayProject community are doing (1.7M posts on IG!).
She wrote this great piece talking about the same thing. https://medium.com/@lindsayjeanthom/if-you-want-quality-start-with-quantity-96550b3b7778
She wrote this great piece talking about the same thing. https://medium.com/@lindsayjeanthom/if-you-want-quality-start-with-quantity-96550b3b7778
. @ka11away and #100daysofcode is another great example.
Quantity works. Practice works. Consistency works.
@ossia writes about it here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-crazy-history-of-the-100daysofcode-challenge-and-why-you-should-try-it-for-2018-6c89a76e298d/
Quantity works. Practice works. Consistency works.
@ossia writes about it here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-crazy-history-of-the-100daysofcode-challenge-and-why-you-should-try-it-for-2018-6c89a76e298d/
If we look at history, it's not a coincidence that some of the most prominent artists are immensely prolific:
- Mozart composed 600+ works.
- Van Gogh created 2,000+ original pieces.
- Picasso created 10,000+ original paintings.
- Asimov wrote nearly 500 books.
- Mozart composed 600+ works.
- Van Gogh created 2,000+ original pieces.
- Picasso created 10,000+ original paintings.
- Asimov wrote nearly 500 books.
Dean Keith Simonton has written about the relationship between quantity and quality at a master's level, concluding, "Quality is a probabilistic function of quantity." http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.391.5108&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Even masters enlisted the support of quantity to shoot at the moving target of quality
Even masters enlisted the support of quantity to shoot at the moving target of quality
At a corporate level, consider a company like Apple. Apple will do 100+ prototypes when most companies get away with doing 6–7. https://www.salon.com/2008/06/09/leander_kahney/
Even when doing validation testing, they use measures of quantity to support their quality assurance: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-EVT-DVT-and-PVT-in-engineering-validation-tests/answer/Anna-Katrina-Shedletsky
Even when doing validation testing, they use measures of quantity to support their quality assurance: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-EVT-DVT-and-PVT-in-engineering-validation-tests/answer/Anna-Katrina-Shedletsky
Anyway, this is one of the themes in my book. The premise is that your creative breakthroughs will be driven by quantity, consistency, and practice.
Creative insights come from actions, and then get applied back into action.
https://herbertlui.net/reps/
Creative insights come from actions, and then get applied back into action.
https://herbertlui.net/reps/
And the book started from this really rough blog post about quantity and quality seven years ago (feat. @kobebryant, @kanyewest, @karenxcheng), which has been read by 200,000 people.
https://medium.com/@herbertlui/why-quantity-should-be-your-priority-3bc2b16fe3f5
Thanks for reading this thread!
https://medium.com/@herbertlui/why-quantity-should-be-your-priority-3bc2b16fe3f5
Thanks for reading this thread!
