George R. R. Martin's Dilemma
George R. R. Martin has a problem:
The next Game of Thrones novel will be a failure. It has to be.
He’s spent so long writing it we expect a masterpiece. It’s been so long between books, we demand it lives up to the time we’ve spent waiting (I mean, come on, kids have grown up in the interim).
The longer you spend on something, the better we expect it to be.
The less frequently you put something into the world, the bigger our expectations.
George Carlin put out a new comedy special roughly every two years for decades, 14 specials all in total. That’s 14 hours of brand new, original comedy, on a regular basis. A handful were masterpieces, and we cherish them. Some were subpar, and we were okay with that, because it was enough just to have new material from our favorite comedian.
Meanwhile, Axl Rose spent 10 years recording Chinese Democracy. Objectively, it’s a great album. But no one cared. We waited so long it couldn’t possibly live up to expectations, and by the time it was released, the world had basically moved on. Building excitement is one thing. Stringing us along is another.
If you make a short video on Instagram or LinkedIn every day, people won’t care if they aren’t all Emmy-worthy. If you check in with your best friend every day, each conversation doesn’t need to be profound or deep.
But if it’s once a month, there’s more pressure. Every six months? This better be good, or you’re just wasting our time. So, there’s a tradeoff. Do your work more frequently with lower expectations, or less frequently with a high bar.
Just be careful if you choose the latter. When you spend five minutes blowing up a balloon to the size of a beach ball, when it pops, it better really explode.
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