The Art of 'Beta Mode'
Act like you're never really finished
Recently I’ve been dipping in and out of two books, The Multi-Hyphen Method by
and The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin. Both authors have, through their works, become something like advisors to me as I navigate a sea of creative projects. I pick these books up for a few minutes in the morning before the day starts and am reading them one chapter at a time.This week I happened upon chapters in each book that were sending very similar messages about experimentation and operating in ‘beta mode.’
In Chapter 7 of her book, Gannon includes ‘Always Be in Beta Mode’ as one of the key elements of her ‘Multi-Hyphen Method Toolkit’. She references a quote from Tom Friedman, New York Times columnist who, in an interview on the future of work, said ‘Never think of yourself as “finished”; otherwise you really will be finished.’ Being in beta mode means there’s always more to learn, and always more opportunities ahead!
In his chapter on ‘Experimentation,’ Rubin compares creative acts to seeds—seeds that need certain conditions in order to grow properly. When we plant seeds, we might be tempted to try and push them to grow faster, or we might get attached to a specific vision we have for the seeds we’re sowing. But like a gardener, we need learn to work with the seeds, not against them. We do this through experimentation, feedback and learning.
‘Beta mode’ is a term that will resonate for those of us who have worked in the digital space. When building apps, we know that the things we build are never really ‘done.’ We build in iterative or repetitive cycles, each of which progresses the app a little further than the last cycle. The point of a cycle is that you design and/or build something, then you either show or release the thing you’ve built to customers who’ll use it. At this point, you can gather feedback directly from your customers, or you might study indirect feedback by looking at usage data, like analytics.
In digital, we tend to have a specific period of time which we designate something as being ‘in beta.’ That beta period gives us a safe space to experiment and try things that maybe we’re not 100% sure yet will work for our customers. It’s an experimentation phase.
After the beta period, there’s never any question about whether something will change or evolve, we all know it will—it’s just a matter of time. But once a piece of software is released (out of beta), we tend to back off on the experimentation we do on that specific area, and instead focus our experimental energies on different areas for a period of time.
This pattern of experimentation and evolution is applicable to any creative endeavor, but it can be easy to forget our role in it.
Gardening is a great example of an activity where we are highly involved in cycles of experimentation and evolution. We experiment by pruning, planting, replanting, fertilizing, weeding and making other adjustments. What works this year might not work next year for a multitude of reasons. Gardening is a creative activity that invites experimentation very naturally.
This newsletter you’re reading right now is also an activity that allows for experimentation and evolution. I get direct feedback from people who have read my newsletter, or through comments and likes; and indirect feedback through analytics that show me how many people open my newsletter, subscribe and/or visit my Substack site. It’s been very experimental for me to commit to writing each week. You can read some of the lessons I’ve gleaned from writing in the article referenced below 👇
Any creative endeavor, whether it’s painting a canvas, writing a novel, or starting a business is served well by experimentation and evolution. Anything we do starts in ‘beta mode’ and then evolves as we receive feedback—direct or indirect—that helps us to define our next steps.
The Art of Being in Beta Mode
The art of beta mode is that it becomes less about perfectionism and more about learning. The beta mode mindset gives us an excuse to be a little more generous with the things that we’re doing—instead of looking at our tasks as something we must finish to a specific standard, we can look at them as experiments that provide some feedback we can work with. Feedback that allows us to take an informed approach to our next actions.
The perspective of experimentation is far more forgiving than the perspective of “must get this right, or else!” Perfectionism can be left at the door—its stubbornness isn’t useful to us anymore.
The point about beta mode isn’t that you never finish things, it’s that you keep your mind open to learning and doing things a little different next time.
Be open to participating in the evolution.
It’s a lot nicer than feeling pressure to get things just right.
In honor of being in ‘beta mode’ I’d love to request some feedback from you, dear reader. I’ve created a survey that contains 3 questions. Easy peasy. It shouldn’t require more than a couple minutes to fill out.
📋 Take the Survey
Thank you so much for joining me here again this week. I’ll write again next week! Until then, go easy on yourself—try to pull back on any perfectionistic tendencies and remind yourself that’s its ok to be in beta mode 👩🔬🔬🧠 Experiment, learn, iterate.
