The 5 Most Important Things I’ve Learned after running Dappered for a decade

This website is almost a decade old. Someone reminded me of that fact the other day over email. I’d like to think we won’t make a big deal out of it. Seems pretty self indulgent to do so. Perhaps so is this post. Take it or leave it.

Good is great. Great is rare. Perfect doesn’t exist.

This applies to both clothes and writing/blogging/content. There’s often a simmering conflict between trying to do your best, and not putting something/yourself out there for fear of not meeting an unreasonable (or impossible) expectation. The ever expanding number of armchair “experts” who have never stood on the stage and absorbed the jeers they so love to emit only increases this dissonance.

Those who are most critical, by definition, are not worth listening to.

Pedantry is a symptom of sh*tty judgement. This also applies to both clothes as well as writing/blogging/content.

Practice doesn’t make perfect, but practice DOES make you more comfortable.

I recently went a couple months without putting on a suit. And even I, the clown behind Dappered.com, felt a little weird putting a suit back on after that time. If you want to be comfortable in your clothes, especially your “nice” stuff? Wear it. If you want to get better at something, like writing or running a website? Do it as often as you can.

Limit aggressive external influence. Value your internal voice. Stay independent.

“You do you” is weirdly wise. Especially if it entails not standing out quite so much. Because maybe you want to keep the focus on the big picture. Which here, is the readership. Not the writer(s).

Listicles work.

Cheap & lazy content device that drives clicks? Or comfortable reading comprehension mechanism that’s pleasing to most? Why not both?