A friend of mine recently published a new book and asked for my advice for promoting it. Fortunately, I wrote a post on the topic, so I sent them the link. (It’s much easier for me to find a link to a post from my blog than a post at a social media platform.)

At the time I wrote the post, I didn’t put too much effort into it. It felt fresh and potentially useful. I’m delighted to say that it’s got a lot more detail than I could write from scratch today, as I’m focused on other projects and the memories aren’t as clear to me. I remember, from the little ramble in the introduction, that I had intended to write it as a placeholder. I had originally wanted to write something more polished.

The post is far from perfect. Rambling intro aside, it could use some tightening up overall. It feels bland (like documentation or a manual), a little messy, and could be more helpful if it was more prescriptive. In other words, it’s scruffy.

On the other hand, it also makes the knowledge public, which makes it useful for everyone else including you and my friend. I know I got value out of reading it again.

If there’s something on your mind that gives you even the faintest sense it may be useful for someone (or your future self), I highly suggest writing it down and publishing it somewhere. Don’t save it in your drafts, don’t edit it too much, and don’t make it perfect. Publish it in its scruffy way. 

You can always go back and tidy it up later.

Thanks Jack King for writing about scruffy hospitality.