At Near Partner, we consider ourselves a self-learning organization. Because of that, we tend to talk a lot about the things that happened and what we are currently learning: whether it’s some lesson learned from a difficult project; or a book or article someone just read; or simply an aphorism someone came to as she was walking and thinking introspectively.
And all the above happen frequently. We try to use our blog to share the small and simple nuggets we get from those moments. It’s a great way to share them with you – and with the rest of the world. But we come to the conclusion we don’t do that frequently enough.
It’s common to hear us say:
“That is something very interesting. We should write a blog post about it.”
or
“What a great idea, you should write a post in our blog and share what you just find out”.
The sad thing is, seldom are those moments transformed into an article.
Not that we don’t put an effort into turning most of the knowledge we touch into blog posts. Patrícia, our marketing manager, is the spearhead of a movement to make sure we do it as frequently as possible. But the word “possible” up there is so annoying.
There are so many reasons that distract us from the goal of transforming knowledge into blog posts.
#We are lazy.
Not don’t-do-anything-all-day type of lazy. But we do have more to do. And thinking about writing a blog post requires putting deep thought into it. Even when the topic is something you already talked about a lot. And had many discussions with many people. It still requires gathering the story behind it.
Let’s be honest, even if the content is very good you need to have a dose of good form for a subject to begin to interest you. There has to be an angle. The angle has to touch you. And searching for that story is hard. It requires thought. It’s sometimes boring. And we are not all that great at writing when it comes to it.
#We have a job to do.
In the end, writing that spectacular blog post is not our job. Unless you’re Patricia of course. But even then, there are other job chores to do.
Life has an annoying tendency to get in the way.
Yes, I want to write a great article about that tool we just used in the project.
Yes, we just came into a novel way of solving a type of problem, I’m sure would be a great story.
But my next project is already here. With deadlines, and scope, and clients, and dailies, and emails, and God-knows-what-else that consumes all the hours and minutes of all the days. How am I supposed to think about anything else?
#We’re not great writers.
Already said up there, right? So many times we think:
“I’m not all that great at writing after all.
I began the article, I swear I did. But… it was not that good after all. When I began reading what I had previously written, I noticed the topic was not that good. The novelty not that novel. The project not that interesting and the idea not that great.
After all, I guess I’m not going to write that article. Maybe next time, the topic will be better. The idea will be fabulous, and I’ll have more time to think about it. And…
Someone else will do it better than me. So, maybe I’ll just throw something at Patricia and wait for the magic wand to transform the list of bullet points into a Pulitzer worth article.”
When it comes to that, we all need to do a little more effort.
That’s the point. Sometimes it’s not that good. But most of the times it is better to share it as it is than not sharing it at all. Done is better than that perfect utopia you will never write and that nobody will ever read.
We have a job to do, but sharing the knowledge is part of that job, too. At least at Near Partner it is. We are better if we know more. We know more if we also learn with others. But more importantly, you learn more, when you must explain to others.
So, let’s get up from our seats and just begin writing it down. Someone else can always polish it afterwards. As with the physical activity you always promise yourself you’ll begin next week, just begin. Do half of the utopian marvel you were considering, because half-done is better than none.
And you? Are you an avid writer? Or you’re struggling like the rest of us? How often do you write articles? ?
Share your thoughts with us.
