I revisited the little flock of pride gryphons! I'm so excited for bi people cause honestly that one came out so cute, anyone repping these feathery little bundles is gonna get so many compliments.

You can check out my gryphon buddies on Redbubble and Teepublic! (Repeating pattern is only on Redbubble!)

They're preying on insecurities to do it. Yes, you can write an essay - but can you write a good essay, they ask you. Do you not want to improve your output? Do you not want people to think of you as competent and very clever? Why go through the mortifying process of failing and failing and failing until you succeed if you can just skip the "learning" part of doing, and simply generate a ready-made product?

I'm preaching to the choir here obviously but it's a concerning thing to witness nonetheless. My kid is 6 next week and I've been teaching her that failing at things is morally neutral and in fact necessary even before the advent of AI, but it's becoming ever more important that we teach the kids that criticism and failure and discomfort aren't necessarily bad things, but just a part of the growth process.

…and the vet was like, “You know the thing with geriatric cats is—” and I was like, “What do you mean, geriatric?! It’s a little baby, look at her!" Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts (2025)

Physical zine preorders open on June 1!

Get your own 9x7" copy of the zine, with 180+ pages of the essays, infographics, comics, and spot art you love. Keep an eye on this post on June 1 for the link to preorder!

2. Hobby books are even more often written by people who don't have or are actively neglecting their partners/full-time jobs/pets/children/household maintenance.

3. Hobby books are often written by people with ADHD, and an hour in ADHD hyperspace is like 2-7 hours for everyone else, including other ADHD people who are not currently in the zone.

4. Hobby books are written by people who, when told by an editor to add in how long it will take, just make shit up

5. If you're doing something for the first time, you're going to take way, way longer to do it than someone who's had years of practice. Maybe it does only take an hour IF YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR TEN YEARS. Think about how long it took you to make idk your first excel spreadsheet vs how long it takes now

To actually answer your question: proud. You should feel proud, because you made something, AND you did so while learning a brand-new skill! Go you!!

For example, I once wanted to make a bunch of small toys as gifts following a simple amigurumi pattern from a book where all the projects were supposed to take an hour. The first one took me two hours to complete, the 3rd was maybe an hour and a half, and by the 6th one, I was down to 45 minutes.

The person who wrote the book I was using had designed these patterns. They had gone through them over and over and over again, adjusting them and writing the instructions out. The author probably could have done every pattern in that book under an hour while while half asleep, the same way I could with the one pattern I was using by the time I was done.

I've found that baking is the same way. A cookie recipe may take only 20 minutes if you've made it a dozen times before, but a brand new baker is going to take longer because they're trying to be precise with the measurements and careful to follow the instructions.

An author of a hobby book is someone who has studied the crafts within, and an expert is almost always going to be faster than an amateur.

Be proud of yourself for completing your project and don't worry about what the projected times say.

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.