TLDR; Plan, Practice and Communicate as efficiently, clearly, and concisely as possible.
Value the time of others
I am very conscious of time.
I skip intros on TV programs and sections that are slow.
When I was creating conference talks, I skipped the normal first few slides explaining who I was and what I did.
I wanted to get straight into the content that would add value to the audience.
When I write defects, I write the problem statement first in the description, as concisely as possible, so that people don’t have to waste time, figuring out what I am talking about.
That’s why I don’t start these PCS with “hi” or an introduction about me because if I was consuming the content, I would skip that.
When I am creating a podcast or a video, I edit out the gaps, the uhms, the mistakes because they don’t add any value to the consumer.
And that all takes me longer, it would be much easier for me if I left them in.
But the way I justify the time that it takes me to edit them… if it cost me, five minutes to edit out a 30-second chunk, if I leave it in and 1000 People watch it, then I just cost the Universe about eight and a half hours.
I take the hit so that the Universe doesn’t have to.
That means I have to plan, practice and edit.
Some platforms don’t allow editing, in which case the planning and practicing are even more important.
I also try to make the headlines and the descriptions provide as much of the value as possible. That way, some people don’t even need to consume the content.
I might lose a hit or a reader, or a listener, if they can get all the value from the headline, but they gain the value in the minimum amount of time and I gained practice in communicating as efficiently as possible.
Time is valuable.
When I create content, I try to treat other people’s time as more valuable than my own.
And I try to create content that I would want to consume in a way that I would want to consume it.
And having said all that, this is probably far too long.
This was originally recorded on Racket on 20210616
