Nicolas Cole describes a pattern where he masters a skill, feels excited for a year, then questions if it's his calling and chases something new. He warns that constantly seeking novelty prevents deep competence, but ignoring exciting directions is also a mistake. The key is recognizing the mastery-boredom loop and choosing deliberately when to stay or pivot.
Every time you get competent at something, you will feel that way. I started ghostwriting for execs. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And then a year later I was like, is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? And then we started scaling the agency and I was like, oh, I'm building new skills. Like, cool. And then a year later I was like, is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? And then we start Ship 30 and I'm like, that is the coolest thing ever. And then a year later I'm like, is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? That cycle never goes away. And so the underlying skill to be aware of is knowing that novelty ends up being the perceived solution to that. Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? What do I do? I go try something new. It's novel. It's fun. And then you repeat the loop. Then it's cool again. And then a year later, you're like, designing AI systems. Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? So that loop never goes away. And so the mistake is making those choices too early in the process because then you deprive yourself of ever building competence anywhere. And then the counterpoint is also true. If the world is changing in a direction that's exciting to you and you don't do that and you don't follow that, then that's like also an incorrect mistake.
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
