The Fear of Not Knowing Enough

One feeling that stopped me from creating this site in the past was the unease that came from knowing I could always know more. I’d worry that I don’t have the authority to talk about a subject, so why should I bother contributing to the discourse online when there are smarter people already doing so? I think a lot of people feel this way and hold back on creating a Substack, YouTube channel or website due to this fear. They are envious of those who seem unbound in their ability to create videos talking about whatever they like.

At the same time, I believe gatekeeping is good and sometimes necessary. We all benefit from the social stigma that stops us from speaking with authority on complex subjects such as medicine when we do not have the relevant expertise, and we all suffer from the erosion of that stigma.

How do we balance these intuitions? How do we contribute to the communities we care about whilst not overstepping?

You Know More Than You Think #

If you want to contribute to a topic but you wonder if you know enough, the fact you have asked this question in the first place indicates that you know at least something that is worth writing about, even if that contribution is small at first. Having the awareness to question how much you know about a given topic before creating content is a good heuristic that you would be responsible when you do eventually add to the conversion. It’s not a way to know for certain that you are informed enough, and further reflection is required, but it is a good start.

Reflection #

What is your experience? Do you work in the field you want to write about? A related field even? Are you formally educated in the topic you are interested in? Even if that’s not the case, have you written notes on the topic, read books and articles, partook in your own self learning? These are the sorts of questions I ask myself before I decide to write about something.

For example, my career has been as a web developer and designer focused on user interfaces for about 5 years. You can see that most of my posts so far have been about CSS, note taking and some of the Linux tools I use. I feel confident in writing about these topics for a few reasons, namely:

1. I have spent half a decade working with front end technologies like CSS, templating languages, and frameworks.
2. I have spent the last year using and customising my Linux set up.
3. I started consistently taking notes with Obsidian about two years ago, actively tweaking my set up to be more productive.

There are other topics that I want to write about, but as of yet, they do not reach my internal threshold for being informed enough to do so. These topics include:

1. Philosophy: I studied Philosophy for 2 years at university before dropping out due to my health. This gave me a good baseline understanding of key topics, how to read philosophers, and how to write philosophy. However, right now I feel too unstable in my own philosophical positions to write about any position I hold. Philosophy also requires a lot of time to engage with it at a deep level.
2. Go: The programming language Go has really taken my interest this year, but I have yet to write some bigger projects in the language, I am planning on writing articles on my experience once those are completed. I have written some notes on Go that I have available publicly, but longer articles will wait until I am more informed.
3. Machine Learning: This year I have completed two short courses on machine learning and statistics, my plan at the moment is to complete one more. I have a lot of notes from these courses in Obsidian, but these were introductory courses, if I start incorporating ML at work or in personal projects, then maybe I can write about these topics in the future.

Some of these subjects may cross my internal threshold one day and I will then start to write about them on this site. Maybe I will have the extra time to read some of the books on my reading list, or complete a few Go programming projects. Some of these subject will always be personal and never written about publicly. The key takeaway here is to make sure you have an internal threshold for creating content. Know when you have the experience or education to contribute to the conversation and when you lack it.

You may feel you are 85% of the way there, you just need to take one or two more steps to be informed enough. I feel this way about philosophy, I lack the time to investigate deep enough, but if I ever find the time needed to read more philosophy, you will see it reflected on this site. If you want to write about politics for example, sign up to a debate club or volunteer locally. Do not let the lack of experience or education stop you completely. Take action and gain the experience needed, but at the same time, make sure your standards are realistic. If you feel you can’t write about politics because you don’t have a masters degree, your internal threshold is far too high. There are plenty of thoughtful political bloggers who do not have formal education in politics. You need to be careful that you are not using your inexperience as an excuse to put off working on your goals.

You Will Struggle To Write At First #

Practical knowledge is different from being skilled in writing. It can be hard to put the concepts into words at first, this can be discouraging and make you feel like you don’t know enough. Start small. This article is about one CSS selector and how to use it. Before I wrote the article, I knew how to use the selector, but I had never written about it, so I would have to edit the article a lot before I felt happy with the result. Keeping the subject matter small stops you from getting overwhelmed in this process, I read the MDN docs for the selector, I came up with an outline, and then I starting writing.

It doesn’t matter if your posts are short, opinionated, technical, overviews, tutorials, reviews, anything. I read Substack posts like Joseph Folley’s My Most Unpopular Philosophical Position and tutorials like Alex Edward’s Demystifying function parameters in Go every week, both are engaging for different reasons. If you build up an audience, they may come to expect a certain style and subject matter, but until then, it’s better to get into the habit of writing and publishing regularly. This will help the writing process become easier and less daunting.

Take Notes #

Like everything else, writing gets easier the more you do it. Whilst your published articles will take more effort, if you write notes regularly you will find writing articles easier. I take notes on podcasts I have listened to, questions I have researched, and books/articles I have read. My notes are usually less structured, highlighting key points from the source I want to remember, but just the habit of writing personal notes will help you write articles through developing tone alone.

Read More #

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they want to create content is not consuming that content. Reading helps shape your writing, you learn how to write clearly and concisely from absorbing well written articles. You also learn which styles you like and which you don’t. You might plan to write tutorials, but if you don’t like reading them, this will (or should) change your plans. Reading a few articles a day takes less time than you think, even if you can only read a few pieces a week, this will improve your writing measurably compared to not reading at all.

example Josh Collinsworth’s Ten tips for better CSS transitions and animations was inspirational to me and solidified that one day I wanted to dedicate time to my own website to share my ideas.

Misinformation & Chat-bots #

There are AI generated listicles, chat-bots trained on out of date information, and bots commenting deliberate misinformation on forums constantly. Most of the time, I assume half of the comments I see on sites like Reddit are from bots. LinkedIn is currently drowning in A.I posts too.

It can be tempting to throw research, note taking, reading, and editing out the window. Why should you have an internal threshold before you write about a subject when there are people using A.I generated slop to spread misinformation at a rate you could never match? Well, giving up will only make the problem worse. Staying true to your beliefs by being well-informed on a topic before you make content about it is a small contribution to tackling the problem the internet is currently facing.

Relax A Little #

In the face of all this noise, it’s okay to relax your standards just a little to begin with. Everyone has to start somewhere. When I look at some of the people who inspire me in development, philosophy, music, and politics, some have degrees, some have PhD’s, and some have neither. Many have worked in related fields since they left education, others didn’t take any interest in the given subject until their 40s. Some creators I enjoy write a handful of longer articles a year, others put out podcasts once a week, some live stream daily. Yet they are all informed, entertaining creators in their given domains. Gatekeeping should be used as a tool to help us filter what we read and the advice we take, not as a weapon to keep us locked out of any and all conversations.

You will never feel ready to start creating content, and that content will never be perfect, especially at the beginning. If you have the experience but wait too long, you will build up an encyclopedia of notes that is never read. I remember feeling this way at the start of the year, I felt like I was collecting facts until I was becoming this mythical centrist who could rattle off all of the arguments for and against a given topic without holding any opinion of my own, even on subjects I know a lot about. As this comment alludes to on Sam Harris’ The Silent Crowd , many of us are afraid to be wrong or share opinions where they can be scrutinised, that’s normal. Feel those nerves, and push forward.