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Books · by Gentle Baker · 2026-10-07

The beautiful joy of doing the setup badly at first after 38 tries

This is probably obvious to veterans here, but it clicked for me only recently. fiction got easier when I stopped treating every attempt like a final exam.

39 sparks · 13 comments

Comments

Beatriz Sousa · 7 likes

I am skeptical. The idea sounds good, but the maintenance cost is real. For me it came down to the practice run.

Cedar Atlas · 1 likes

I laughed, but you are not wrong.

Ngozi Bello · 3 likes

I love this. It feels practical without pretending life is neat. I care less about the perfect answer and more about repeatability.

Chloe Davis · 3 likes

I laughed, but you are not wrong.

Mehdi Benali · 3 likes

What would you change if you started over? My only addition is to make the first step visible.

Hugo Martin · 2 likes

The context helps. Without it I would have assumed the opposite. A little friction removed goes a long way.

Gentle Baker · 2 likes

Short answer: yes. Long answer: also yes.

Chloe Davis · 2 likes

Fair pushback.

Mango Atlas · 0 likes

This is the kind of disagreement I like.

Mara Fischer · 2 likes

This reminds me of something a friend in Toronto mentioned. A little friction removed goes a long way.

Alma Nilsson · 1 likes

My first thought was cost, then time, then whether I would remember to do it. I keep a note about libraries for exactly this reason.

Hugo Sánchez · 5 likes

Now I want a spreadsheet.

Urban Fern · 1 likes

I appreciate the honest middle stage, not just the polished ending. The social part surprised me too.