Publishing my Writing

This post is a self-reflection on my relationship with the act of publishing my ideas. I've tried and stopped a few times in the past years, and now, after taking a long break, I decided to get back at it.

The Challenges

In a word: insecurity. I started to write and speak English about ten years ago, and it took me years to become comfortable with it, as I am today. Almost an entire decade, to be precise. Most days, I still doubt my ability to communicate and articulate ideas in a foreign language.

I never stop writing since a big part of being a designer is communicating ideas, but I stopped making my writing public, outside the scope of the companies I worked for. When I reflect on it, I can think of two forces that keep pushing me in the "do not publish" direction:

• Impostor Syndrome — It never goes away. It leads me to believe that it is never good enough or that I lack a unique perspective, which becomes an endless loop of frustration.
• Anti-signaling — I try to live an invisible life, usually avoiding sharing my personal life with friends and the internet. It is also part of my belief that the world doesn’t need more humans signaling or producing more of the same.

Why Start Again?

That's a question I've been asking myself through the last year when I started to re-think what I wanted to have as an online presence — for designers often called a portfolio.

Given that English is not my primary language, I have a narrower vocabulary than most Americans. With that, I embraced a form of communication that tends to be more clear and direct, with straightforward sentences and easy words.

I'm excited about the possibility that my words can clarify ideas or inspire someone looking for a point of view.

The Approach

I aspire to deliver objective and concise writing. I read a lot of articles and often find that people are trying to be too funny, too smart, or too intellectual, which in my view, reduces objectiveness and clarity in favor of personal branding.

That's something I'm comfortable with within my professional life, as I could never find a reason to use a complicated word to explain simple ideas and concepts, just for the sake of sounding like a designer.

As with all my side projects, this space is a gateway for thinking and learning. However, that doesn't mean that I don't have goals. It is about having goals that allow me to form habits and establish new creative practices efficiently.