Scratching beneath the Surface & Perception

Looking at something from the outside in, we can almost never know. To get any sort of decent knowledge, we'll have to scratch the surface. This holds true for any vocation, job, or relationship.

The perception of the thing is a mixed bag of people's shallow opinions, the narrative that they've spun to make it seem a certain way, and how this perception fits in the context of our lives.

For instance, take a vocation like writing. Looking at it from the outside in, I thought it was glamorous, fun, and easy enough. The perception built around this is that anyone can become a writer, there are certain frameworks we can use, and gain millions of followers and start earning money online. The next decade is going to be the decade of the creator, and you should start now. All of these are possibly true. What is also true, though, is that it's a lot of work, and while frameworks and formulae will get you so far, writing well and eventually making money off of your writing will take a lot of work, patience, and luck. The same holds true for any job (SaaS startups are all the rage, being touted as easy money and for anyone to start) and relationships; everyone not in a relationship thinks it's the one thing missing from their lives, not realising how much work building a healthy, happy relationship with anyone is.

But, scratch below the surface for anything, and you see a glimpse of what anything really is. When we decide to start something, it's the perception that pulls us in. And while the shallow perceptions of fame, fortune, or anything else are as good as any reasons to start anything, in my personal experience, they rarely instil the kind of curiosity required to take things beyond the surface and hence for the long haul. You might call it shiny object syndrome or any other name, but it's not going to last.

If you're not genuinely curious about what the thing is, you'll probably abandon it the minute you scratch under the surface and get to a place where consistent effort and patience is required to go past.

Point being, start writing, start a SaaS business, get into a relationship. But if you want it to last, do it because you're genuinely wanting to become a better writer and want clarity of thought, you're genuinely curious about solving a particular problem and SaaS might be the best way to do it, and you want to get into a relationship & scratch beneath the surface of the person you're building a relationship with.

It's the only way for it to last.