From music to TV shows, I’m no stranger to nostalgia. I look back fondly at the entertainment of my youth. My own work? That’s a different story entirely. Not even going that far back — remember that Beyond the Rhetoric has been around since 2006 and a link to old posts regularly — I cringe. A lot. I wrote that? Ugh. And I get the sense that many other creative professionals feel the same way when they look at their old work too. They cringe.

And they should. That’s a good thing.

A Sign of Growth

When you cringe at the work you did earlier on your career, this indicates that you’ve raised your standards. While you may have basked proudly at a blog post you wrote 10 years ago, reading it today, you wonder how you could’ve ever been so bad. How was that fit for publishing? But it was. Because you did. And it’s a good thing you did.

If the work that you are producing today — whether that’s blogging, photography, graphic design, video, music, acting, or any other creative endeavor — is of the same caliber as the work you produced years and years ago, that’s an indication of stagnation. If the work you produce today is qualitatively better, then it means that you have grown as an artist and content creator.

I mean look at the predecessor to Beyond the Rhetoric. That was… something.

Now That's Entertainment

This is Now That’s Entertainment… (yes, the ellipsis was part of its official name; I was soooo creative), as captured by Wayback Machine on June 7, 2004. Almost exactly 15 years ago to the day. The site was powered by Geocities. Remember Geocities? What about Tripod and Angelfire?

A Design Worthy of Cringe

At the time, I was pretty proud of myself. I used Macromedia Dreamweaver (this was before Adobe acquired Macromedia) for the base design, and then I customized it further in raw HTML. Oh yes, this site was complete with scrolling marquee text, rollover images, pull-down menus, animated icons, public page view counters, and even a functional guestbook. Of course, it looks quite terrible by today’s standards. And I cringe. But that’s okay.

For better or for worse, Wayback Machine didn’t archive the majority of the articles I published on Now That’s Entertainment. When Geocities went down for good, it took a part of my early “blogging” career down with it. I was able to unearth this issue from September 2000, though, back when my musings were distributed by email. Go ahead and cringe with me.

But if I didn’t run that Geocities site, if I didn’t write those guest columns on The Commentary, then Beyond the Rhetoric might not exist today. Then, I may not have authored three books. In other words, I wouldn’t be the blogger and writer than I am today if I didn’t put in all those hours over the years. And I have no doubt that when I revisit this post in 10 or 15 years, I’ll undoubtedly cringe too.

I look forward to my future disappointment. Won’t you do the same?