How Do You Get Started...?

Getting started is the toughest part. Advice is plentiful, as are the promises of shortcuts and hacks to circumvent any actual effort. Modern technology has made it easier than ever to get started. At the same time, it has made us question whether getting started even matters.

I’m not referring to anything heavy or existential, although that extrapolation doesn’t require too much effort. I’m talking about things like learning a programming language, or learning a new art technique, or writing (anything). Why bother? Especially now?

Maybe this is the real question—the one that gets to the heart of getting started. It forces you to examine your intentions more carefully. There’s no single correct answer, which is exactly what makes it worth asking. Once you understand the why, the how often becomes clearer.

The why, of course, is a bigger question. I had a brilliant professor in grad school who always pushed us to ask “the big questions” (as he put it). Rather than arming us with step-by-step “recipes” for tasks (i.e. how to accomplish something), he wanted us to understand the larger context. His point was that the means by which we might do something will likely change in time (due to advances in research or technology), but the bigger questions will always remain. For him it was about the questions, not the answers. This frustrated my instrumentalist classmates, who were simply looking for facts rather than understanding.

I recently learned about the Nobel-winning physicist Isidor Rabi, who credited his mother for his scientific and academic success. After school, rather than asking the typically trite “Did you learn anything today?” she would instead ask him “Did you ask a good question today?” ¹

I think that when someone asks how to get started, you do them a disservice if you don’t ask why. Assuming that this point has resonated, you should be entirely suspicious of any advice you receive that ignores why you’re asking.

Why Bother Writing Anyway?

This idea applies broadly, but writing is a particularly good example. Writing is hard work. It’s arduous, and increasingly thankless in a world of soundbites, doomscrolling, and proud ignorance. People don’t read ², so why bother writing? Besides, AI can do the writing anyway. My short answer is simply this: It’s not about the end result, it’s about the process. There’s also a more pragmatic reason…

I’m not a resolutions kind of guy, nor do I announce any of my goal-setting. It’s not that I don’t set goals for myself; it’s just that I don’t really make any pronouncements about them. It’s also not that I don’t achieve my goals. I tend not to promote my achievements either. This is probably why I struggle so much with writing résumés, LinkedIn profiles, etc.

I mention this mostly paradoxically. A number of New Year’s Eves ago, I decided that I wanted to write more. I didn’t say anything about it, and I most definitely didn’t do anything resembling goal-setting either. In fact I didn’t even give it much more thought than “I want to write more this year” — whatever that meant. I didn’t write anything before… so more than that should have been doable, right? I didn’t make a resolution, and even if I might have thought about it like a resolution, no “more” writing ensued.

Having never gotten started, there was never the opportunity to continue. There were too many occasions where I’d wished there were already a place to write/post/share. Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly why I’m getting started, and this is it.