"Not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap. . . . Things that are really good are good because people are being really tough."    — Ira Glass

That is true, but also there is a great deal that never gets started because of how tough we are on ourselves.   Different ends of a continuim: Abandoning (never getting started or throwing everything out) on one end and producing "Crap" on the other end with "Abandoning Crap" the perfect point somewhere in the middle.  The fear of failure in one way or another is paralyzing.

I think the issue is where do we place the "failure"?  As long as we keep the trial and error in a safe place then trial and error is part of the honing process.  It is a vital part to the development of anything great; a PowerPoint Presentation, a piece of art, or a blog. The slide ideas that are discussed and roughed out and then tossed are as important as the ones we keep. The art pieces that never get shown are critically important to the process of creating the best art.  I am hoping that it is true for the blog too because it is taking a lot of courage to hit "publish" each time even though I work on these entries for a while and toss a lot!

"Failure is a big part of success. . . . You are going to run into a lot of stuff that is going to go nowhere.  If you're not failing all the time you are not creating a situation where you can get super lucky."    — Ira Glass

The quotes in this entry are from the second segment of an interview series with Ira Glass. Very worth watching!)