Not First

I posted a Cee-Lo music video a couple weeks after it came out, and people wrote to tell me I was late. Not just late—behind. Like I’d failed at some implicit speed requirement. The video was beautiful. That was the only reason I posted it. But apparently beauty wasn’t enough if it came with a timestamp that didn’t align with the moment it dropped.

There’s this thing that happens when you’re online constantly. Everything feels urgent. You build this muscle memory where falling behind on the current moment feels like a personal failure. Trends move fast, algorithms punish you for being slow, and there’s always something newer coming. So you keep reaching for what just happened, what’s happening now, what’s about to happen. The newest shit.

But that’s exhausting, and it kills something. Not everyone’s sitting around mainlining content all day. Some people have lives, work, distractions. They stumble onto something beautiful on Tuesday that dropped on Monday, and it still moves them. When did we decide that mattered less than being first?

I’m not interested in chasing what’s hot. I’m interested in what’s actually worth my time. Sometimes the newest thing qualifies. Most of the time it doesn’t. I’d rather post something genuinely great a week late than something mediocre because it’s today. That’s not some high-minded principle—it’s just what interests me.

The people who complain about timing are usually the ones who’ve already moved on to the next thing anyway. They’re not sitting with the Cee-Lo video; they’re already three novelties ahead. They just want to know why I’m not in lockstep with them.

I’m not. I was never going to be.