PSA: I Am Officially Unfollowing Tim Denning
We should be suspicious of anyone who thinks they always have something important to say.
Tim Denning may say things that are worth saying.
On occasion, he may even say them well.
But the same things are also being said by someone else — a voice that you and I will likely never hear.
That certain someone may say it better.
They may say it from a place of deeper experience.
They may say it in a way that the world desperately needs.
But we won’t hear them, because we’re too busy trying to be Tim Denning.
I’ve been guilty of psychological projection before, but I don’t think I’m alone on this one.
Most of us who follow Tim are not following him because of his writing. We are following him because of his success.
Perhaps we saw an article or two. Maybe we learned something. That’s all well and good. But if I slow down to practice self-awareness, I realize that I followed Tim because of his existing follower count and because there are articles that tout him as someone worth imitating. Imagine for a moment, how many scores of followers are in the same boat.
1. I Believe in Quality over Quantity
Like many fledgling writers with empty wallets, I began my Medium journey with an inordinate focus on articles about SEO, audience stats, and algorithmic strategy.
I read click-bait stories about how to get X followers in X days, or use “this one simple trick” to double your audience, until all of my Daily Reads were about hacking the Medium ecosystem and not about actual writing from actual writers.
Setting aside the issue of how discouraging and dissociative it is to have your “writing” become about not writing, writing has also become about sheer output.
There are countless articles that enshrine the value of quantity.
But the idea that creative people have to compete for attention by pumping out 5+ pieces per week is absurd. For most people, it is not healthy. Just because Tim can do it, doesn’t mean he should, let alone that all of us should.
