Make a lot, publish a little

How often should a consultant publish content?

Sparingly, waiting for the one piece that'll nail a home run?

Or daily, throwing out every idea that pops into your head and seeing what sticks?

Some sell the case for a daily newsletter on the idea that you get better by doing, and your best ideas come when you increase production.

Make more stuff, see what resonates.

There’s truth in that.

Professor Dean Keith Simonton discovered that the most celebrated authors of scientific papers (Nobel Prize winners) were the most productive. Einstein, for example, wrote 240 academic papers. Most have never been cited. A handful are groundbreaking (​from Zig Zag​).

The genius doesn't wait for a brilliant idea to land. She makes a lot of stuff and finds gold in the discard pile. Most don't land, a few are Hits.

But this concept of production doesn't align with the case for a daily newsletter because...

Creation is not publishing

The best creatives in their field do not crank out content.

Those scientific writers were prolific, but they weren't publishing daily.

Taylor Swift builds her library of lyrics by curating “lists and lists and lists” of words she loves and phrases she hears people have in conversation.

She does that daily, but she doesn’t use it all.

She connects those words and phrases to one another to create lyrics. She combines some of those to write a song, then selects the very best and records them.

That same approach is used by comedians, screenwriters, poets, nonfiction writers, and illustrators.

They make a lot of stuff.

Swift has released 11 studio albums across 18 years. That's a large body of work, but it's nowhere near a song a day, not even a song a month.

They make stuff daily, run it through their own taste radar, share it with trusted friends and advisors, perform to small (selected) audiences to gauge performance, then release the best stuff.

You're not going to find the gold without going through a lot of debris.

But equally, you don't have to share every piece of debris with the world and have the world tell you what's gold and what's crap.

That's where you're own taste comes in (along with sparing sessions with friends and advisors).

"The secret of creative work is to make a lot and publish a little. Don't underestimate the power of giving yourself permission to create junk. Most of what you create will be mediocre or bad. But that's okay. You only have to show people the good stuff. Make 100 things, discard 90, and share the 10 best. Create, create, create. Edit, edit, edit." James Clear

You get good at a craft by doing it a lot.

And, if you want to develop Disruptive Wisdom, you need to read, think, and write every day.

But whether you publish or not is a different decision.

“Christopher Nolan hasn’t made many movies (and has carefully kept his first student film hidden from view). If he puts his name on it, people pay attention.” Seth Godin

I'm not saying you should release an essay once every six months and see how it lands. If you're using content to build your brand, you need to show up regularly, build relationships, and gain momentum.

We’re not Christopher Nolan.

But equally, we want people to pay attention, and the more you throw at a reader, the less likely they will.

And what about scarcity?

“Scarcity shapes our choices and drives our actions. When something is scarce, it suddenly becomes valuable. We want it more because there is less. This principle underlies everything from the price of gold to the thrill of the hunt." Farnham Street, The Great Mental Models v4: Economics and Art

​Louis Grenier​ produces a great daily and so does ​Seth Godin​. There are a handful others.

But the majority of Undisputed Authorities I've ​written about​ and currently study, they write a weekly newsletter, max.

Relatively speaking, make a lot, publish a little.