Unproductive comparison

I've discovered something recently — it's a lot easier to improve something than create something.

I'm currently working on Ink, which is the first time I've worked on something entirely new in almost three years. I began my work on Gimkit all the way back in May of 2017. Ever since then, my work has been improving Gimkit.

But Ink is something brand new, in fact it doesn't fully exist yet. I've been given a blank canvas, now I have to make something on it.

This shift from improvement to first-time creation has brought upon some unique challenges. One of those is comparison.

When you create something new, that thing can be anything, but it can't be anything. Constraints exist, and you have to work towards the anything that makes the most sense given your situation.

Many times throughout the process of building Ink, I've been unable to do that. I look at other products, not even in the world of writing, and wish Ink could be a little more like that. But the comparison is completely unfair. Some of these products have been around for years, some have been worked on by teams of 100+ people.

It's the software equivalent of comparing your body to someone on a fitness magazine cover. That person likely has had a lot more time to train, was perhaps luckier genetically, heck it might even be Photoshopped. You can compare yourself to that person on the fitness magazine cover, but it's an unfair comparison.

When working on Gimkit, I very rarely compare it to other things. I feel confident in how it works/feels/does. I feel great with where it's at, but know there's lots more to improve.

But with Ink, I've found myself comparing. Comparing a lot.

In each of these times I've compared Ink to something else, I never feel like it results in Ink getting better, or me feeling better about my work.

So I've been trying to break out of it — and I think I'm getting better. What's helped me the most is looking at how immature the first version of many new products are.

I'm going to show you some screenshots of the first version of Gimkit. Here's what it looked like when adding a question to a Kit:

Here's what your dashboard looked like (Gimkit was called Gimlet originally)

Here's what viewing a Kit looked like:

You can see just how different things are now, and how much things have come along. When the first version of Gimkit came out, there were tons and tons of things missing.

You couldn't edit Kits. You couldn't create assignments. You couldn't add images/audio to questions. There was no KitCollab. There were no powerups. Reports weren't saved in your account. There were no classes. There were no game modes. You couldn't search for other Kits. You couldn't join a game after it started. And so much more was missing.

But you know what? Students and teachers loved using Gimkit — even back then. Heck, people paid for Gimkit when it was just the first version.

Remembering that has helped me a ton in feeling more confident with my work on Ink. It doesn't need to look/feel the greatest on day one. It's okay if it's missing features. It's okay if it's immature.

It's the first version, the first take, the first of many. It's not the end of the road, it's the beginning.