Here’s what I know: if someone’s much better than you at something, they probably try much harder. You probably underestimate how much harder they try. I’m not saying that talent isn’t a meaningful differentiator, because it certainly is, but I think people generally underestimate how much effort needs to be poured into talent in order to develop it. So much of getting good at anything is just pure labour: figuring out how to try and then offering up the hours. If you’re doing it wrong you can do it a thousand times and not produce any particularly interesting results. So, you have to make sure you’re trying the right way by surrounding yourself with good and knowledgeable people.

But this post isn’t about how to get good at things. It’s about how people always assume I’m interested in the end result—the wonderful thing they’ve made—when what I’m really interested in is the process. How did you get this way and why? I’m curious about the ugliness of trying, the years and years of wanting and hoping and working. I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by craft. I think it’s because it requires such sustained tenacity. Like Michelangelo saying that he just chips away at everything that didn’t look like David: a hundred thousand little motions to reveal the underlying beauty.

I think a lot of people want to be but they don’t want to do. They want to have written a book, but they don’t want to write the book. They want to be fit, but they don’t want the tedium of working out. They’re afraid of rejection and they’re ashamed of imperfection. I might want lots of people to subscribe to this Substack, but do I want to workshop a post every day? 

Donna Tartt once said in an interview that if the writer’s not having fun the reader isn’t either. I think people make the best things when they love the process and when they willingly shoulder the inherent uncertainty and pain that comes with it. It’s almost like a form of prayer: you offer up what you can even though the reward is uncertain. You do it out of love.

Fantasy is easy and effort is punishing. Seeming is always easier than being. But what kind of life are we living if we’re not honest with ourselves? My friend once told me that there are two types of people: people who are ashamed of something and choose not to do it, and people who choose to do it anyway and just hide it. I wanted to never be the latter: someone who cares more about appearances than they care about their relationship with themselves. I don’t want to pretend like I’m too good for ugliness, for effort, when I know very well that it’s the price that unlocks everything beautiful in the world.

I’m curious about the ugliness of trying. In tennis, many players moan because they want it easier than it is – true trying means suffering both physically and mentally on the court. Naturally, the skill level has to be high in order to stay in points long enough to suffer but most players will not suffer unconditionally when “the reward is uncertain”

Fantasy is easy and effort is punishing. Seeming is always easier than being.

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