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The Hawthorn Effect #1: Nothing Happens on the Couch

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now."

The Hawthorn Effect #1: Nothing Happens on the Couch

Nothing to it, but to do it.

Just start.

Nothing happens on the couch.

There's innumerable people who tell you to just go ahead and "start something" or "go build something", but the fundamental issue is, the question of what.

What am I starting? What do I build?

The reality is that in actuality you don't have to know "what you're starting" or "what you're building", because before you start the process, you're going to have no idea anyways.

The path will reveal itself as you walk it.

Case in point is my recent attempt at my own personal mid-life crisis: my recent foray into learning how to DJ.

I bought my DJ controller (a Pioneer DDJ FLX-4) in April of 2023, so I've been DJing about a year and a half now, give or take.

But I only bought a DJ controller because I decided that I would start to write, on a lark, so I started the previous version of this website on Substack. The post format was five songs I liked that week - and this was only because I had no idea what else to write about. The first post went up on September 22, 2022.

But I started to write about music once a week, which led me to understand a bit more about electronic music and DJing, and it made me finally bite the bullet and actually buy a DJ controller (something I've been thinking about buying for probably 20 years). So I went from never having written anything online, to writing online, to buying a DJ controller.

And now, 18 months later, I have a middle-tier streaming setup, and I'm starting to not be that bad of a DJ. As of today, I have 596 tracks, which means I could DJ for about 40 hours straight without repeating myself. A year and a half ago, I had no controller, and no music.

Now, compared to the streamers you see on Twitch making millions of dollars, my setup is pretty basic. But to me, this setup is better than anything I could have imagined as a child. This is effectively a pirate radio station in my basement, that I can go down and turn on at any point, and broadcast to the entire planet.

People think, well, I'm only getting 5 viewers, or 10 viewers, or 20 viewers, or whatever, but to me, that's beside the point. Sure, only a handful might watch any one stream, but I am broadcasting to the ENTIRE WORLD. Anyone who finds the link to my stream can click on it. There's no restriction.

So what's the point? The point is that I spend a ton of my time overanalyzing and overthinking my next move, instead of just moving. I think that a lot of people are like that. I've been doing that my whole life, to a certain degree.

"What if I do this thing and this other thing happens? Then it won't be worth it and it will have been a waste. Better to just not start it at all."

That's no way to live.

The point is I spent 20 years of my life thinking about DJing instead of just going out there and buying a controller and learning how to DJ. Even if I ended up not liking it, I would have started and stopped it years ago by now, and I'd have been onto the next thing. And if I did end up enjoying it (which seems to be the case), I would have that much more experience with it. I'd be that much better of a DJ.

It's like that old Chinese proverb -

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The next best time is now."

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