David Foster Wallace is a very problematic figure who nonetheless has said things that resonate with me. To paraphrase him here...



The most important lesson I've learned so far as a Person Who Makes Videos For The Internet™ is that, when you're starting out, finishing things is more important than having them be any good; I'm still an amateur video essayist, and the biggest problem I find is that, when I write scripts, I worry about whether I sound intelligent, or am making any sense. I compare myself not to my peers, but my idols, and on some level dilute my own writing/voice trying to emulate them. I think myself dull, verbose and redundant, and paralyze myself into not writing anything at all sometimes, or very little, if I'm lucky, and it's hard to get into the flow I need in order to complete anything. Deadlines help on some level, but now that I'm out of school, they're more self-imposed, which doesn't have as much weight as the ones that were imposed on me and resulted in genuine consequences like lower grades, and say, parental disappointment. So yeah, perfectionism, combined, ironically, with a lack of diligence/motivation is what gets in my way.

I usually go back to this video (for creative pursuits in general) and this video (for writing, specifically) whenever I need to give myself some incentive to get back on top of things.