My favorite hip-hop vlogger Jay Smooth has eloquently described those nagging voices that reside inside the heads of people who do creative work as “little haters.”
He even wrote a song about his:
When I’m writing, my “little hater” tells me I need to find a fifth or a sixth corroborating piece of evidence before I can make a claim, and even after I do, the damn thing still comes out tentative. He sometimes makes me think that the idea that I just came up with can’t be anywhere near as good as I originally thought because, well, I’m the one who came up with it. Someone else probably wrote something similar somewhere else, and I just haven’t seen it yet.
I’ve about had enough of this bastard getting in my way.
Sometimes, when I need get a post up on this blog, I start writing about interests that I don’t get to explore when I write reports, papers, proposals, or emails. It’s possible to tie almost anything into that topic taped up there across the header. “Write what you know” isn’t useful just for getting our students to break through their shells. It’s also a useful way to put your little hater on his heels, get the engine revving, and start a conversation.
Awesome. :-) (My little hater told me not to use the word awesome, but I’m sticking with it.)
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