When we put work into the world — when we post on social media, when we blog, when we put work in a gallery, when we sing — there’s not always a response.

It can be unsettling.

Did anyone hear me? Did my voice find an ear? Does my message resonate?

Sometimes, there’s nothing.

Without focus groups, without likes, without comments, without reviews… how do we know?

There are times when we simply don’t know. But that doesn’t stop us.

We put work into the world because we are trying to make change happen, and that unfolds slowly. Sometimes quietly.

So we can’t be impatient when we publish. When we create. When we ship. When we speak.

Before social media and hyper-connectivity and tracking cookies, the writers and artists and thinkers who changed the world did so without real-time analytics, and without a single retweet.