I’ve been listening to the Hanselminutes podcast for some eight or nine years already, and it is in fact the reason I created myself a Micro.blog blog in the first place. Scott is an empathetic and knowledgeable host and the guests and topics are diverse. Furthermore, I find the half an hour episode length just perfect for commutes when I listen to the show at an ever so slightly increased 1.1x speed. 🎙️

In a recent episode #991 Scott had a chat with Dr. Anne-Laure Le Cunff about her new book Tiny Experiments. What resonated with me in the show was when they discussed that people are being too absolute about the things they want to do or be. Way too often someone announces that they, say, will start going to a gym, then buy a membership for a year, and then slowly find out it’s not for them after all after the first couple of months. This is then considered a failure and will negatively affect their self image.

The better way to do this would’ve been to think that I think I might like going to a gym, then buy a membership for a month, and then just try it out. If you didn’t like going to a gym then fine, you tried, your hypothesis proved to be wrong, you learned something without losing too much time or money. It was a learning experience instead of a failure.

In a sense this entire blog is a tiny experiment for myself. I have no idea if I’ll still be blogging in a year, but so far I’ve been enjoying it, and it’s certainly not too expensive when Micro.blog plans start at just $1 per month (which is the plan I’m currently using).

So, that’s something to ponder about. If you have children, you tell them that it’s alright and indeed encouraged to just try, you don’t need to succeed. At which point does an adult switch to a mode where it’s not OK to “just try” but you’re expected to commit and succeed?