Idk if it's an artifact of age since I've been this way since 4th grade. But it's a simple fact that it will be extremely difficult to do anything new and interesting if you are overly concerned with people perceiving you negatively. https://twitter.com/jmj/status/1305573438346543104

Some people have a disposition that is reactively against anything that doesn't have a clear precedent. Some have a disposition reactively against anything done by someone with your background. People will be mad at anyone doing anything. It's often the doing, not the thing.

The mere existence of criticism should never stop you from doing what's right. It's the quality of the critique that matters. Most critique is valueless.

You can't develop muscle to asses the quality of critique w/o hearing it, and you won't hear it if you never try anything.

Developing muscle for the new and interesting is undervalued. I see a lot of professionals quietly working w/in systems so that one day they can change things, but it won't work because you can't spend an entire career being a non change agent then suddenly turn on the switch.

You can't spend an entire career making risk-averse, non-brave decisions and then one day expect to all of a sudden know how to be brave and risk loving. Stop fooling yourself. You must develop the muscle.

You develop the muscle by being a bit more brave everyday. Just 0.01 percent. It will add up. Make that potentially risky proposal. Send that tweet. Write that cold email.. then let compounding do its work. Ok?