The perfect first

is a myth.  In fact it's more than that; it's a barricade.  An insurmountable hurdle that keeps us from starting.  There's all this hype and pressure around "firsts" and I'm finally over it.  First Kiss, First Date, First Step, First Word, First lock of hair removed by scissors. We want to make these events more than are; memorialize them, photograph them, bronze them and put them on the mantle. So after months, maybe years, of procrastinating, false starts and rabbit holes, I've finally decided there is no perfect first.  Note-to-self, "Get over it and get going!"

The journey here was not without interesting diversions.  I've mocked up designs, written notebooks of ideas, and started and stopped more than few times.  And let's not forget the ultimate tool of delay... research.  I thought a post on first posts would be an interesting and ironic first post.  So research I did.  Starting with friends and co-workers like Greg, Ryan, and Ethan. Then moving on to some regular reads like Jaffe Juice, Grok, Phil Cooke.  This was not going anywhere helpful until I peeked into the archives here, here and here. 

And then finally, I remembered that Zeldman has been blogging forever (since 1995 according to his site), and thought I'd peek into Zeldman's past.  Colossal mistake.  This is where research stopped being productive and turned into a huge time-sucking-black-hole.  After browsing an irrational number of pages on Zeldman.com and A List Apart, I can only conclude that Jeffrey is either violently opposed to the concept of an archive or that he takes obscene pleasure in torturing rational minds.  I mean if http://www.alistapart.com/issues/8 returns everything from issue 8, can't we reasonably conclude that http://www.alistapart.com/issues/1  should return something like, oh I don't know, the first post on A List Apart?!?!?

But I digress, and that's really the problem.  There are endless opportunities for digression.  At some point you just have to stop and go with what you have.  Stop waiting for the perfect time, the perfect place, the perfect look, the perfect post.  It doesn't exist.  Move on.  In fact most of the firsts are far better after the first.  So here it is.  Written.  Done.

 

Comments

[Bronwyn Jones]

You win. Mine sucked.

[Keith]

Yeah, you squashed me. Mine sucked too: http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/archive/2002/07/virgin

"At some point you just have to stop and go with what you have."

I think that's true of just about anything. Great first.

[Ryan Irelan]

I was in the dark days of grad school when I wrote that, so please don't judge me. ;)

This is a way better start.

*runs off to delete archives on his blog* ;)

[Leo A. Novelli]

You beat me... I still have no idea what to talk about...

[Russ]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.

[Sameer Vasta]

Amen. Great way to kick it off.

I had to use someone else's words in my first post..

[serge]

Thanks. It's so true...