An Artificial Beginner

When you were beginning, and you didn’t have a network of industry friends like the product people we know, you had ideas you couldn’t tell anyone about.

When you were beginning, and you didn’t know how to build what you could dream up, you had a list of features and apps and services you could build, if only you knew how.

When you were beginning, you didn’t know that you couldn’t do something a little on the fringe, and so you tried new things.

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But now, now that you’re no longer a beginner, and you have industry friends, and you know how to build, you realize you no longer have the audacious beginner’s mindset.

And now, now that you realize that being a beginner is just a state of mind, you can artificially set your mind on beginner mode again, if only you could remember your fringe ideas.

And now, now that you have remembered your initial ideas, and now that you have what it takes to make your old ideas anew, what will you do?

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Being an artificial beginner doesn’t mean that you have to change who you have now become, because the old you is still in there, and you’re just bringing a part of you back. But you do have to ignore everyone who will look at you funny for acting like an artificial beginner again, because they might not have learned the trick yet.

Yes, it’s an act, but it doesn’t matter, because being a professional means being able to go to work, no matter whether that day you feel like a beginner or an expert. You do the work in front of you anyway. And today you’ll pretend you’re a beginner, just to keep things fresh. And because you now can.