You won't be the best, but that's okay

There are over 7 billion people on this planet. So odds are that no matter what you do and try to achieve, there will be someone better at it than you. Maybe one day, for one thing, you'll be the very best of the best, but the odds aren't in your favor.

It's hard to not feel depressed at that thought (or maybe you're lucky enough to escape the existential dread). But I believe that the sooner we learn how to hear difficult truths like this and adapt to them, the better off we are.

Coming to terms with this idea is something that I've personally struggled with, often at a subconscious level, and largely stemming from an excessive sense of perfectionism. I had internalized the notion that if someone else was already doing it better, faster, or more originally than I would—whatever "it" is—then it isn't worth the effort for me to do it.

One of the biggest areas this has hindered me is as a writer. Despite wholly enjoying the process of writing, I would often (and honestly, still do often) find myself thinking, "The ideas you're writing about have probably been posted dozens of times on various blogs already, what's the point?" I convince myself that if the idea has been put into words somewhere, at some point, then there's no reason for me to put it into words here today.

As a minor aside, an idea I've become passionate about—to the point where it has integrated into my way of life—is digital well-being, which I learned about through my discovery of The Center for Humane Technology (formerly, the Time Well Spent Movement). The Center for Humane Technology advocates for more ethically designed technology so that we can use technology rather than the other way around. It shaped not only my behaviors like deleting social media apps and turning my phone screen grayscale, but also my overarching attitude toward technology—a vital effect considering that I will likely spend a good chunk of my career developing user-facing software.

The digital well-being movement is an idea I find myself always wanting to write about and to share. However, after the movement began to gain popularity and posts about it popped up in my various news/media sources, I found myself thinking, "Ah man, someone already wrote about it. Guess I won't."

If that thought were carried out to its logical conclusion, then no one would ever write about a topic after the first person did. Clearly, it's a ridiculous notion. Information and ideas gain power when they are dispersed by many people through many spaces via various re-interpretations, allowing them to reach wider audiences and take on a diverse and nuanced set of perspectives.

The point is: it's okay to not be the best, the fastest or the first. What you have to contribute, no matter how seemingly small, will still make a difference.

P.S. I'm starting a new habit of publishing a new blog post each week. It took me several minutes and some serious internal agony to force myself to post this one at its deadline without working on it further. But the best way (I hope?) to fight perfectionism is to give it just the amount of space it deserves: enough that it can help you but not enough that it can consume you.