--- When someone asks me, how to be consistently good at their craft, my answer is: > One day, try to make something good. Then the next day onwards, don't break the chain.[^1] I disappoint a lot of people with this answer. It sounds too simple, too reductive. People expect a more nuanced, better answer. The problem with "better" answers is that they aren't actually better. They're either too complex[^2] or too misleading[^3]. On the flip side, *Don't Break the Chain* is the kind of idea I call a [[Simple, Big Claims|simple, big claim]]——simple enough to be a daily practice, but big enough to change your life. Its simplicity is hidden in plain sight: show up every day, with intention. That's it. That's your only job. No hidden clauses. No extra layers. No fine print. Another way to phrase it could have been *Make Something Good Each Day*. But saying that would complicate things because making something good each day is neither under your control, nor is it realistic. But showing up every day? That's a lot more doable. But just because it's doable, doesn't mean it's easy. There are days when showing up is pretty damn hard. The hardest are the ones right after you've made something shit——on those days, the devil on your shoulder whispers: *You already failed yesterday. Why bother again today?* If the goal was to make something good every day, you'd eventually listen to that voice and throw in the towel. Conversely, if the goal is to not break the chain, then the only way you fail is by not turning up. This change in perspective on failure makes all the difference. It's not that just making an appearance every day guarantees you won't produce shit. You still will. In fact, on some days you won't even produce that. But among all those gloomy days, there will be a few that give way to the sun. On those days, you'll make shit that's amazing. Those few days——and you only need a few——will be the ones that change your life. [^1]: *Don't Break the Chain* is an idea popularly attributed to Jerry Seinfeld, though it's unclear if he actually said it. [^2]: When it comes to honing your craft, there's plenty of bad advice that does nothing more than feed our modern obsession with productivity. One such idea I hear frequently is "Ship Every Day". It sounds good on the surface——daily shipping creates accountability, pushes you to improve, yada yada yada. In my opinion, it's a terrible idea. Nobody creates good work every day. Most days, what you produce will be garbage, and even proponents of _Ship Every Day_ admit that. So why ship garbage? Are you really that driven by external validation that you’re okay with letting quality slide? And what if you’re not a solo creator? What if you're working on complex projects that require time and collaboration? What if the thing you ship affects millions of people? Would you still ship every day? [^3]: Another disappointing set of ideas out there are the ones that mislead people. Take the whole "1% Better Every Day" idea——if you just improved by 1% each day, by the end of the year you'd be over 37 times better because 1.01^365 = 37.7. Simple math, right? Must be true! Bullshit. It's just a sales pitch, and not even a good one. Say you can run for 10 minutes and you try to get 1% better every day, by the end of the year you should be able to run for 6 hours and 18 minutes. Or say you can deadlift an easy 120lbs and you aim for 1% more every day, in a year you should be lifting more than 4500lbs. These are obviously unrealistic numbers. You're sold the idea of compounding as if it leads to an endless hockey stick curve, but in reality what you get is a curve that eventually plateaus. Plus, progress doesn't come in neat, daily increments. It's more like a series of step changes that happen every so often. Ideas like "1% Better Every Day" *sound* great, but they ring hollow when subjected to a bit of scrutiny.