I’m going to talk to you today about self-improvement. As somebody who makes a lot of stuff and then puts it on the Internet, it is very easy for me to look through my “back catalogue” and see that the thing I did two months ago is just TERRIBLE. I can’t even bother comparing my 8-week old project to the one I just finished, because they are on completely different levels. Take, for instance, a recent episode of Future Tech Chat:
Now, compare that live video to one from April:
I “accidentally” listened to the older one last night, and it is absolutely painful for me to compare the first minute of the two shows. Now, don’t even bother comparing the two title cards, as I have recently redesigned them to look consistent and clean, but not in a boring way. I’m just talking about my tone, my purposefulness, and my preparedness in starting the two episodes. I was actually probably a little more excited to talk about wearable devices than I was about bicycles, but it’s no contest if you ask me which is the better introduction to a show.
Honestly, what comparing my present self to past versions of me has shown time and again is that if I keep putting effort into improving myself, eventually the bicycles episode will seem just as terrible as the wearables episode does now. I can only improve by continuing to try. The guys over at
+AsapSCIENCE, (a GREAT YouTube channel in case you were wondering) made a little video about their first upload this week, and they felt exactly the same way I do.
So, where does that leave me? Basically, I will keep working every single day to get better and to feel more comfortable doing the work I do.
I know I’m kind of burying the lede on this one, but frankly I’m a little nervous about asking people to help me out and to continue to improve. I’ve created a profile on a creative support (aka crowdfunding) platform called Patreon, with absolutely no expectations as to where it will go or how much it will help me. I will continue in earnest with all the projects I’ve already been working on (I’m so lucky that basically everything I do on the Google platform is effectively free), but having some funds available will enable the technology I work with to improve, and I’ve tried to include some perks that will encourage you to help me out. The Patreon funding model is either on a per-project, or per-month basis, but I’m told that you can make a donation for a month and then simply cancel your subscription and support me in a small, lump sum kind of way. Honestly, any positives the use of this platform gets me are more than I’m expecting. You can find me on Patreon at the link below, and thank you to all of you who are already supporting me by sharing my work and chatting about important or mundane things with me on a regular basis, it means more than I can possibly tell you. I would also welcome other methods of support, financial or otherwise, if you’re skeptical about crowdfunding but would still like to help. I just really want to keep making stuff.
