# Commenting vs. making

![rw-book-cover](https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1200,c_limit,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8a17fda3-76f4-463c-8ab3-1df2ac511730_2086x1669.jpeg)

## Metadata
- Author: [[Karl Yang]]
- Full Title: Commenting vs. making
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://chiefofstuff.substack.com/p/commenting-vs-making

## Highlights
- I found myself especially frustrated with my past self, whose default was to complain and/or comment, then wonder why things didn’t magically get better.
- It is, of course, much easier to complain about how things are bad rather than do anything about it, which is why people prefer to complain.
- It’s also easy to confuse being “helpful” with being helpful. A lot of people think they’re “adding value” by nitpicking, or supplying unsolicited takes, when they’re actually just draining energy and momentum.
    - Tags: [[favorite]] 
- At internet scale, simply by doing anything, you expose attackable surface area to furor you never imagined. Most people are shocked and drop out of making things, preferring to stay safe. Those who make it through often look like startup founders, battle-scarred and tone-deaf from being attacked for so many years.
- I’ve come to believe that working through something is the only way to explore the idea maze. Everything else is commentary. I’ve mostly stopped sharing unsolicited “helpful” just-a-thoughts and comments at work. I save them for Twitter, the primordial soup of commentary from which living things occasionally emerge.