10-Point Scale & Wikipedia
Perfectionism is killing me...
![10-Point Scale & Wikipedia](/content/images/size/w2000/2021/04/Screen-Shot-2021-04-12-at-3.12.25-PM.png)
Perfectionism is killing me...
I have a terrible habit of starting projects and refusing to publish them. I want them to be perfect or 'complete'.
As of this morning, there are 441 article drafts for my site with only 3 published!
![](https://nickyoder.com/content/images/2021/03/Library.jpg)
The Strategy
Combat my OCD by launching two experiments simultaneously:
- Publish drafts before they are 100% perfect
- Break up very long articles into a friendly "Wikipedia-style" tree structure
10-Point Scale
The new strategy: Publish ideas instantly
Each new article will go to the website 24 hours after I get the idea, no matter how much (or little) progress I've made.
At the top of each article a sticker will indicate the stage of completeness.
![](https://nickyoder.com/content/images/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-30-at-11.19.53-AM-1.png)
By pushing a project into the sunlight, I am forced to either keep improving it or allow it's imperfection to languish publicly.
My goal is to turn OCD/Perfectionism into a Weapon of Productivity!
![](https://nickyoder.com/content/images/2021/03/Scale-1-10.png)
I'm pretty excited about this new tactic! These are the advantages anticipated:
- Faster output
- More feedback/engagement from friends
- There will ALWAYS be some obvious next steps
- No more indecision about when to finally push a project out the door
The publish timestamp + progress sticker will tell the world if I've been slacking.
Wikipedia
The new strategy: Bite size
For technical subjects, it's hard to find the right balance between brevity, clear explanation and useful development of an idea.
Some articles are dense and technical with a narrow audience.
Others are fluffy with fun titles but almost no useful information.
I tend toward the third sin: Technical articles, clearly explained, over an insanely long 8-part 25,000-word series....
Either way, the result is the same: Few readers gain from the experience.
The second experiment will be organizational: Break apart these monolith long-form articles and organize them into some like a network of short Wikipedia articles.
At the root will be a simple article with an introduction, brief story arc and conclusion.
Within each part, include links to explanations, historical vignettes, more examples, Python code, etc...
![](https://nickyoder.com/content/images/2021/03/Wikipedia-Tree.png)
In this way, an interested reader can thread through the material efficiently and without wasting their attention span.
Technical readers may skip the examples and dive into the heavy stuff.
A casual reader may enjoy the story and skip to the conclusions.
A graduate student with career ambitions might read every part of it, or return for multiple sessions.
For the curious, I would rate this article:
![](https://nickyoder.com/content/images/2021/03/Screen-Shot-2021-03-30-at-6.00.06-PM.png)
Conclusion
Please reach out to me at: nickyoder10@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @NickYoder86
All thoughts and feedback are appreciated!