What is Shipping?
Shipping is coming up with an idea, making a product (I use the term product lightly, it could be art, a blog post, a revolutionary idea, No Hipster Stock photos, etc.) and submitting it to the public. It’s finishing an idea. Turning “I want to do this” into “I did this”. It doesn’t matter if it’s crap, at first it’s probably going to be crap. But that’s not what’s important. The important part is going from having nothing to having a product. And then the learning begins!
Theory, Practice, Practice
The idea behind shipping is failing quickly. If you come up with a theory, the fastest way to learn if it’s a good theory, or not, is to finish it, get it out to the public, and see how it goes. As I said before, most likely it’ll fail, but failure is good. Failure lets you looking at the problems. Diagnose those problems. And practice a solution to those problems. Once you’ve come up with a theory to fix your prior failures you’re ready to ship again (what’s called an iteration or a pivot in the startup world). The constant practice of shipping let’s you see failures much quicker than constantly asking yourself “What do I want”.
Lack of Shipping and Album Failure
Disclaimer: I am not an expert of the music industry and have not researched this at all.
Almost every first album I like by an artist is followed by an album that doesn’t quite cut it. It’s usually a completely different sound than what made the artist popular, and the reason I liked them. My belief: There is a lot of pressure to create something unique and unheard of by their listeners. Unfortunately, the album that made them famous came from shipping and the theory, practice, practice mindset. They tried different variations on small tours or in their locality, getting instantaneous feedback from the audience. Once they came up with a product (in this case a song) that got the small audience intrigued, they knew they created a hit. Shipping is what made them famous. And instead of shipping to create an album for their second go-around, a lot of bands become secretive. Shipping must be public to gain the benefits of failing fast, and forward.
Blogging is Shipping
I didn’t mean to start daily blogging. I had read about doing it in lots of blog posts, but that wasn’t my intention. Once I started shipping to the public, on Facebook, it held me accountable. It made me aware of my writing, and it opened my mind to always be thinking about gaining new knowledge. It also meant having to ship, whether it’s crap or not (which, as someone that doesn’t love my own writing, I usually think it’s crap). But shipping my product (blog posts) has taught me a few lessons already.
- I never know where my motivation for my next blog post will come from
- Rarely do I get fully sucked into the “blackhole” of daily life and I make more attempts to think about the world around me
- My writing is getting better, and my ability to put thoughts into words is improving
Ship! It’s the only way to create something of value. Whether it’s good or not doesn’t matter, what matters is the practice of shipping and trying to create something out of nothing. I promise it gets easier.