I was complaining last week - between discussions of the impending layoffs at Lehman Bros. (bad news) and the new Metallica album (not bad at all) - that people, i.e. creators, just "throw shit against the wall to see what sticks." Life in Beta.

This was a continuation of the fact that I can now buy an iPhone. The iPhone that I didn't want to buy had bugs. The aforementioned bugs have been fixed and now I will buy one. "I am not a test dummy," I said. I was ranting, and I was being edgy. The edginess was mostly in reaction to being around people who listen to more (and harder) rock than I do and so I needed an edge. My manhood (not intentionally) was being challenged.

But my complaint was this: why should I be the early adopter. And on the surface, it's a valid complaint. But what was really bothering me was that I was not at the forefront. It's a trade-off: be the first and deal with the problems. Or don't be the first. At the time, I wasn't handling well not being the first. Life in Beta.

Because - here is the problem - life in Beta is what I want. It is a uber-competitive market granting me behind-the-scenes access in realtime. I compared sending the iPhone out early to releasing Google Chrome when it is still inferior to Firefox. I was comparing it to movies that hit the screen without concern for finished product. And musicians who pump out records. And people who don't know what they want to say, but start talking anyway.

And I realized at some point, damn, my/our blog is a shitwall.* It is an attempt. It's a "let's see where this takes us." It is an amateur cum professional shitwall. Life is a shitwall. Beta is a shitwall, yes, but a highly functional step in the right direction. Life in Beta.

I read this sentence (fragment) on 43 Folders (via kottke) - "the gifted artist who knows the dirty little secret that nobody shits a masterpiece" - and it hit me. Stop waiting for the masterpiece. Put something on paper. I remind my self that Is This It? by The Strokes sounds like it was recorded on a lunch break. It is raw and haphazard and half-assed. And awesome because of all those things. Over-production is a problem.

Many people would argue that, by far, the first three films (or Ep. 4 - 6) in the Star Wars series were the best by far. Why? Because they weren't over-produced. (I am without a doubt one of those people.) Consider the almost mythical Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy. How, after years in post-production, could this album actually live up to the hype it's created? It cannot. So over-production can also cause over-hype. That's two reasons to throw some shit against a wall.

The first thing one produces will not be a masterpiece. So you can't just sit around waiting for it. You gotta throw the shit against the wall. You have to crawl before you walk. (Insert another tried and true cliche here.)

Nothing would get done if it didn't go Beta. A public Beta is risky, at least for a fragile creator. But it is necessary and it would help thicken the skin. I'm not the first to preach a life in Beta.

When in doubt, listen to the words of Don Draper:

Do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is okay. You are okay.

*A completely wonderful shitwall, Hank, Joe, and E.A (the contributor formerly known as GLC).