How to overcome the fear of writing

I clearly remember the first blog post that I wrote.  I agonized for hours over what to write.  I wondered how people would react.  Each sentence was examined and re-examined.  Throughout the entire process, fear prevented me from continuing.  I am writing this post during a break between meetings and it takes me a tenth of the time.  The biggest change that has happened is that I have already gone through the process of writing and posting blogs.  I know what to expect and what to avoid but most importantly I eliminated the fear associated with writing a blog post.


I faced a similar situation writing my first book.  I was not sure if it was good enough or how people would react.  However, once I published the book on Amazon, Industrial Strength Techniques for Home Organization, I realized that my fears were unfounded.  As I write my next book that will tie together much of the concepts from this blog, the writing process is much easier.  Time is spent producing content rather than agonizing over thoughts.

Many of our fear come from not knowing what will happen and our imagination creates dangers that are far scarier than reality.  Once we have gone through the experience once, we realize that most of our fears were unfounded.    Entrepreneurs also must go through the fear cycle.  The first customer pitch, the first VC meeting, the first hire.  All of these events become second nature after having experienced them once.

The trick then is to get people over the initial hurdler of an experience so that they can move on and accomplish great things.

With this in mind, how can companies like Amazon help people overcome their fear of writing?

Soft Launch:  One technique is to use a staging area where people can publish their work without exposing it to the world.  This is typically used for technical reasons to help people correct errors but it should also be used to help people overcome the initial fear of uploading their first work.  The soft launch would allow people to share their work with a small group of friends minimize the fear of public scrutiny that may stifle the creative process.

Priming:  The second technique uses priming.  When people describe how they are going to perform an action ahead of time, they are more likely to follow through with that action.  Amazon could help people create a schedule for writing the book.  To help break the project into smaller parts, people could upload individual chapters according to the schedule that they created.

Offer a Mulligan:   In golf, it is not uncommon for people to mess up their drive on the first tee.  A Mulligan is a do over and the second shot is usually much better.  Amazon should encourage first time publishers to create a smaller book or a collection of short stories.  Once people have the confidence of publishing one book, they can move on to writing their epic novel.

By understanding that first time writers often need help overcoming the fear of writing,
Amazon can take steps to minimize this fear and lay the seeds for the next great novel.

How to add more value by doing less

I was listening to Rory Sutherland on Ted Talks and he mentioned Professor Ayelet Fishback and her work on the dilution model: How additional goals undermine the perceived instrumentation of a shared path.
Here is a link to the paper: The Dilution Model: How Additional Goals Undermine the Perceived Instrumentality of a Shared Path.

In summary, this model states that if a product or service performs multiple tasks, people have a perception that the ability to perform any one of the tasks well is diminished.  The paper states the example of a coffee shop that serves both coffee and sandwiches.   Sure people may have a need for both coffee and sandwiches and it would save people time if they could buy both at the same place.  The problem comes when you ask people about the quality of the coffee.  Research shows that since the café does not specialize in coffee, people will say the coffee is not as good as specialty coffee shops despite actual quality.

This same pattern is played out in many other multi function areas.  Mr. Sutherland gives the example of the TV with built in DVD player.  No matter what the technical specs say, people will think that the combination unit must have inferior quality to stand alone units and will thus buy the parts independently.  One explanation for this bias is that people may belive that compromises are made in the design that would impact quality.  Mr. Sutherland also uses the example of Google Search.  Instead of adding the weather and news, Google Search does one thing only and this increases people’s perception of the ability to do that.

Of course a discussion like this is not complete without dragging in the leaders of minimalism; Apple.  If you look at the early iPods you will notice that they all had limited functionality but did it very well. In fact, latter versions such as the shuffle actual removed features thereby possibly increasing the perceived quality of music play back.

It is important to note that context for a product should not be ignored.  Ludwig von Mises states that it is impossible to tell the difference between the value created by the food and the value created by sweeping the floor.  In the example of the coffee shop, eliminating sandwiches would increase the perceived quality of the coffee but the ambiance of the café must also be considered.


So how can the concept of goal dilution be applied to improving product value?  The first step is to try not to be all things to all people.  Minimize the product features to the core functionality that reflects the strength of your company.  Next understand the ecosystem within which your product operates and try to fit into that ecosystem as easily as possible.  If you make DVD players understand that you need to connect to a TV to work.  In order to simplify that process, why not accept the fact that not everyone has access to the back of their stereo system and put the connections on the side.  If you are a coffee shop, make sure you are located next to a complimentary product such as bagels.