The opportunities and obstacles of content creation in a crowded online space
Creating content is necessary when it brings value to a conversation and enhances the discourse. It also helps the author learn by receiving feedback directly from the community.
Content Creation
Content creation refers to generating, publishing, and distributing content for a specific audience or market. This can include a wide range of media, such as blog posts, videos, images, and social media posts. Content creation is often a vital part of a company’s marketing strategy or individual contributor, allowing them to share their thoughts, ideas, and creativity with the world. The goal of content creation is typically to engage and educate an audience and to build a loyal following of consumers or readers.
Content creation is best used as part of public discourse for a specific area. Public discourse allows people from all over the world to share their thoughts and ideas and can sometimes play a role in shaping public opinion and the broader conversation on a given topic.
One of the most important questions to ask yourself before creating content is: “What is the purpose of this content?” Having a clear understanding of the purpose of your content will help you create something valuable, informative, and engaging for your intended audience. It will also help you determine your content's best approach and format and what information and ideas to include.
Other important questions to consider include the following:
- Who is my intended audience? It’s essential to understand your intended audience clearly. This will help you create relevant, valuable, and engaging content for them.
- What are their interests and needs?
- What do I want them to learn or take away from my content?
- How can I ensure that my content is original, reliable, and credible? To be successful, your content should be well-written, informative, and unique. It should provide value to your audience and be free of errors and typos.
Asking yourself these questions can help you create compelling and well-suited content for your audience and goals and effectively enhance public discourse on your chosen topic.
Content Quality
“Technology has improved the speed at which we’re able to communicate, but not necessarily the quality.” Articulating Design Decisions — Tom Greever
Most people are not born with innate content-creation skills. (There are exceptions, but that’s a topic for another article). When we start creating content, from drawing and writing to playing an instrument or making a joke, our first attempts are pretty clumsy and heavy-handed.
“The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway
If we take writing as an example, there are several ways to improve your writing skills. Some of the most effective include:
- Reading extensively: Reading can help improve your writing by exposing you to various styles and formats and providing inspiration and ideas.
- Practising regularly: Writing regularly, even if it’s just for a short time each day, can help you develop your skills and become more comfortable with the writing process.
- Seeking feedback: Asking for feedback from others, such as friends, family, or colleagues, can help you identify areas for improvement and provide valuable insights into how others perceive your writing.
- Taking a course or workshop: A course or workshop on writing can provide structured instruction and guidance on improving your skills.
- Using writing tools and resources: There are many tools and resources available that can help improve your writing, such as grammar and spell checkers, thesauruses, and style guides. ChatGPT is a potent AI tool that can help you discover, summarise, formulate and categorise your thoughts.
Overall, the key to improving your writing skills is to put in the time and effort to practice and learn and seek feedback and guidance from others.
Another important facet of content quality is the signal-to-noise ratio. This refers to the ratio of useful, relevant information to irrelevant or extraneous information in a piece of content. A high signal-to-noise ratio means that the content contains valuable and relevant information. In contrast, a low signal-to-noise ratio indicates that the content is cluttered with irrelevant or unnecessary information.
A high signal-to-noise ratio is vital for creating compelling content, as it helps ensure that it is clear, focused, and easy to understand. It also helps ensure the content is manageable for the reader. To improve the signal-to-noise ratio in your content, you can try to eliminate unnecessary information, focus on the most critical points, and use clear and concise language.
Content Abundance
There is no denying that we live through the most fertile and abundant content availability and access to it in human history.
It is difficult to provide an exact number for how much online data is generated daily. It can vary depending on factors such as the number of people using the internet and the amount of activity on different websites and platforms. However, it is estimated that in 2021, the average person generated approximately 1.7 megabytes of data per second, which adds up to over 1.3 terabytes per person per day.
To put this in perspective, 1.3 terabytes of data is equivalent to over 3.3 million pages of text or more than 1,000 hours of high-definition video. This amount of data is expected to grow as more people use the internet for increasing activities. (this is another subject that could be covered in a separate article… I called dibs!)
When discussing the abundance of information, there are a few key things to keep in mind:
- Not all information is of equal quality: Just because the information is available does not necessarily mean that it is accurate, reliable, or valuable. It’s essential to evaluate the quality of the information and consider its source before using it.
- Free information can still have a cost: While the information itself may be free, accessing it may require time, effort, or other resources. Additionally, free information may require you to give up some control or privacy.
- The abundance of information can be overwhelming: With so much information available for free, it can be challenging to know where to start and what to trust. This can lead to information overload and make it challenging to find and use the most relevant and valuable information.
When discussing the abundance of information, it’s essential to consider its quality, cost, and potential impact.
“There’s no such thing as information overload. There’s only filter failure.” — Clay Shirky
This idea that we do not have information overload but filter failure suggests that the problem is not the sheer quantity of information available but our ability to filter and manage that information effectively. This can lead to a situation where we are inundated with vast information but need help finding and using the information we need. To address this problem, it is vital to develop effective filters and strategies for managing the information we encounter. This can include using tools and techniques such as keyword searches, subscribing to relevant news sources and newsletters, and curating our social media feeds to prioritise the information that is most relevant to us. By developing these skills and strategies, we can better manage the information we encounter and avoid information overload.
Using writing again as an example, you can help readers avoid information overload by:
- Being descriptive and concise with the titles and subtitles.
- Add an executive summary at the beginning and emphasise keywords for improved scannability.
- Focus on explaining what they will take away from the content.
- Use appropriate keywords and metadata. This can help improve your content's discoverability and make it more likely to be found by the right audience.
Content Publishing
Publishing is a critical step when it comes to content creation.
“You can only call it knowledge if you share it” — made.by.james
When trying to accomplish a content goal, the first thing to understand is how to find out what stands between you and that goal and then systematically remove the obstacles. For example, if you want to share your content with the world but are afraid that the audience will criticise your work, Seth Godin recommends publishing it under a pseudonym. This way, you will receive the feedback you need to improve and become more confident. You will eventually be confident enough to publish content under your real name.
To understand just how vital publishing content can be, we must look at Carl Friedrich Gauss. He was a German mathematician and physicist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, magnetic fields, astronomy, and optics. One of his most famous achievements was the development of the concept of the Gaussian or normal distribution, which is a statistical distribution that arises naturally in many situations. He also contributed significantly to studying the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), a mathematical technique for representing functions as sums of simple sine and cosine waves. These are used for radar, sonar, 5G and WiFi, and any time a signal is processed.
Most importantly, FFT is used by scientists looking to detect nuclear weapons tests. This is because nuclear tests moved predominantly underground around the 1960s, which made them almost impossible to detect. From 1963 to 1993, about 1,500 nuclear weapons were tested, or roughly one per week for 30 years. At its peak, in 1980, an estimated 70k nuclear warheads existed.
If the FFT had been discovered sooner, it might have prevented the nuclear arms race. It was discovered sooner, but then it was forgotten. In 1805 mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss created a novel approach to harmonic analysis to calculate the orbit of celestial bodies, but he ultimately used another method and never published his insights. Gauss discovered the discrete Fourier Transform before Joseph Fourier (1807) and developed the same FFT algorithm to detect underground nuclear tests published in 1965. Gauss's discovery went unnoticed because it was published after his death, with non-standard notation in Latin.
“The most important numerical algorithm of our lifetime.” — Gilbert Strang
Now you might say: Hey Radu, I’m not Friedrich Gauss! My work will never help save the world!
Maybe not, but remember:
“Everything you’ve already accomplished is a mountain someone else is trying to climb — maybe you can give them a leg up.” Unsolicited Advice—Adam J. Kurtz
Having established just how vital publishing content could be, we can’t stress this step enough. There are even more reasons why the publishing of content needs to happen. One such reason is receiving feedback or the feedback loop.
10,000 hours of practice is the rule of thumb to become an expert in almost any field. Malcolm Gladwell popularised this notion, but this might be more accurate if considered part of the bigger picture: becoming an expert in any field typically requires dedication, hard work, and a willingness to learn and adapt continuously. The same as a tennis player would practice different types of strokes by hitting the ball hundreds of times, a chess player plays hundreds of games, and a musician plays hundreds of concerts. They all get feedback: the tennis player watches the ball clear the net, the chess player wins or loses a game, and the musician listens for inaccuracies in the band sounds or the ovations from the fans.
Here are some general steps you can take to become an expert in a particular field:
- Identify an area of interest within a field.
- Educate yourself about the basics of the field.
- Develop skills and knowledge through practice and hands-on experience.
- Stay up-to-date with advancements in the field.
- Network and seek mentors.
- Apply knowledge and skills in real-world situations.
- Be persistent and take risks to advance your career.
The feedback loop should be used for each of the steps mentioned above. You can do so by documenting your journey and publishing relevant content for each stage. This way, you will receive the feedback you need to learn from mistakes and make the adjustments needed to improve. By creating a feedback loop, it can be easier to assess progress and make necessary adjustments, which can assist with your goal of becoming an expert.
Above all, content creation is about giving yourself the time to reflect and slow down enough that you become more aware of your progress, so you should do it for others and yourself.
Set a goal right now and aim to publish something in the next few weeks. Seek that public commitment and remember:
“If at first you don’t succeed, try two more times so that your failure is statistically significant.” early variation attributed to W. C. Fields (1880–1946)
Conclusion
The opportunities and obstacles of content creation in a crowded online space can be both exciting and daunting. On the one hand, the proliferation of digital platforms and the ease of creating and distributing content has made it possible for anyone to share their ideas and reach a global audience. However, the sheer amount of online content can make it difficult to stand out and attract the attention of potential readers and viewers. Successful content creators must navigate this landscape and find ways to differentiate themselves to build an audience and achieve their goals. Whether you are just starting or are an experienced content creator, the key is to stay focused, be persistent, and continuously strive to improve and innovate to succeed in this crowded and ever-changing online space.
Please let me know in the comments below if you have any thoughts or comments. (aka the feedback loop).
That’s all, folks! Time to put down the phone and go outside.
