I get asked for blogging tips a lot by other investors or entrepreneurs, most of whom aren’t writing consistently and imagine they should be. “Time” is usually the blocker that everyone identifies but when you press on what exactly that means, it’s less about nothing having a spare 30 minutes and more so about the ridiculously long time it takes them to write something. What’s the culprit behind this cumbersome burden? Not dislike of writing, not desire for perfect grammar, not even lack of topics. No, the issue is often the need to be right. To feel 100% confident in what you’re putting out there and aggrandize the post to encompass the whole history, theory and current state of some topic. Wow, what a mindfuck. My advice is to not worry so much. Instead of writing the definitive post, just pick one aspect and riff a bit. Share what you know, what you think and see what happens.

So what does happen? Sometimes nothing. But other times something awesome: people bring you knowledge in return. They’ll tell you why you’re right or wrong. Add their data to you hypothesis. Like when we put Homebrew’s WhatIfs out there (list of ideas we’d like to discuss startups around), it’s not because we’re telling everyone that we’ve figured it but instead hoping to attract people who just might have. Take for example, a post I wrote interviewing a local art studio owner.

It caught the eye of an awesome artist/technologist/founder who met me for coffee this morning and got me a whole lot smarter about the problems she sees in the art market. And how she’s working to solve them. Great 30 minute chat that made me think more/differently about a topic I had briefly considered. Love it.

So don’t write only because you know you’re right and have it all figured it out. Write because it attracts other people who can help test your arguments, augment your data or teach you something new.