I built a simple website to publish my ideas and work.
Why I made a website
I’ve long been content building my projects in private and lurking online, learning from the ideas of:
- My peers in the energy industry, such as Michael Liebreich, Tom Geiser, Alex Leemon and Declan Kelly, Vivienne Roberts, and Jack Simpson.
- Software and business leaders like Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, and Sam Altman.
My perspective changed after reading Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. It’s an easy read I’d recommend to anyone interested in scaling up their impact. A few ideas stuck with me:
- Great innovations are rarely born in isolation. More often, they are built from an ‘ecology of talent’ that are actively supporting, building on, and copying from each other. The internet is increasingly where this ecology is at, and sharing your projects and ideas is a great way to contribute.
- Sharing your ideas is an act of generosity. They don’t need to be perfect, preachy, self-righteous or overly professional. Even half-baked ideas or scrappy drafts can be more helpful than you realise.
My Goals
Learn
I love learning new things! Writing down what I have learnt helps the ideas stick.
Teach
Publishing my ideas will help me reach a broader audience and learn from your perspective, while making new friends along the way.
It’s also a great way to get feedback when your ideas don’t make sense. If your ideas on a topic are a garbled mess, then it becomes immediately and painfully obvious the moment you try to string a sentence from them.
If you can’t explain it simply, you probably don’t understand it well enough.
Reach
I want to keep meeting new people who bring new perspectives and want to do big things, particularly in the worlds of energy and technology. Putting my ideas out there may help me do it, even if it means leaving my comfort zone and risking some public criticism in the process.
The Plan
Keep it simple
Improve the process such that it is near effortless to contribute to.
Be consistent
Sign off my work process by documenting what I did, or completing a new idea.
Expect progress, not perfection
I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Writing this post took longer than I’d like to admit. High standards are helpful for maintaining a high quality, but they result to wasted time when left unchecked.
I’d rather share something rough and incomplete than nothing at all. I look forward to sharing helpful things I’ve learnt, new technologies I’m working with, changes in our industry, or even just updates on my progress.
