George Kao argues creators should stop worrying about the order of their content. Online audiences find pieces randomly and out of sequence anyway, so each item needs to stand alone. Sequencing only matters for structured projects like books or courses.
I've noticed that one of the things that stops people from creating content consistently is that they're so worried about the order of their content. So if you're making videos, oh, I should have made this video first, and then the second, and then the third topic and then the fourth. That makes more sense for people to consume it in that order. But here is the truth of how people consume content online. They don't do it in order, right? They come to your Instagram feed, they're not going to scroll down to the first picture, right? They're just going to look at what's already in the first couple of rows. So they look at your latest content, they go to your YouTube channel, they don't go to the very first video and start there? No, they just. People like fresh content. They want to see what's the latest and then they start from there, even if they're brand new to you. Okay? So every piece of content you create for free online should stand on its own. You shouldn't have to worry about the order and series of things. Make everything stand on its own. Now, of course, a particular concept you talk about is going to be more understandable if people also understood this and this and this and this. But I just encourage that you assume that people understand and have enough background. Whatever you're saying, just make the assumption. Just be really bold and make the assumption that they already get it. And then you just talk about whatever you want to talk about right now. You can here and there, you might want to reference something you've written before, but even that gets a little bit. It can get annoying for people because they're like, oh, God, to consume every piece of your content. I have to go look at this other thing, this other thing, this other thing. So just, just do it on its own, okay? Make every piece of content stand on its own. And also know that as you create, you are going to learn. In fact, I think creating is really the best way of learning. As you create, you're going to realize the gaps that you have in your knowledge and the, you're going to have new ideas come in and then the, the order or sequence you thought things should go in is going to get messed up because you're learning and discovering and that's normal. And that's good thing. If you didn't, if you thought you were able to create the perfect ordering a sequence of content now, that means you are never going to learn more. You're not going to learn anything new. So just create now and then, and then so then you might say well does it ever get to a point where you should put things in order? Yes. When you're writing a book, okay you can look back at the blog post you've written and then find a better ordering of topics to put into your book. Great. Okay when you're creating an online course you can look back at all the videos you've created and go which which topics should be first, second, third Great. Okay. Or if you're creating an email autoresponder or whatever it is that that is a one time you know that is a singular project that requires more thoughtful sequencing. Great but not with your ongoing regular content. Just let that your ongoing consistent content be whatever is true for you right now and whatever you know right now knowing in the future you're going to get smarter, you're going to get more experience but just show up with what you already know now and that is good enough. I hope this is helpful.
