Very true. We often feel we aren’t very good at things. We’ll always be behind some people, but we’re also ahead of others as well, and we forget that. I always think I’m at a dead end in piano, and my teacher tells me to knock it off because I’m way ahead of where normal progress is for an adult student. So while I may feel I’m at a tough point, it’s because I’m constantly challenging myself to improve, not just sticking at my current level.

Even with my Lemmy content, I knew maybe more than your average person about owls, but now after a year plus of reading about them every day, I feel much more established in my knowledge of them.

Hobbies are all about fun and gradual improvement. Progress pics can be an important part of that. As long as the community treats everyone nicely, beginner work should be complimented.

Even in something like knitting, I never got far at it and just made maybe a half dozen basic scarfs, but I got consistent comments about my ability to keep even tension, which kept me motivated.

In regards to overall growth of Lemmy, I look at us as the instances being the mom and pop shops vs the commercial conglomerates of Reddit and Facebook. I don’t want or need to be that big to feel successful. I’m close to getting 3k subs, and that’s more people than I ever imagined to have listening to me. We don’t need to be all things to all people. We can coexist with other platforms. I imagine some might even prefer my rendition of Superbowl to the Reddit one. You get solid photos and facts, but you’re not overwhelmed with too much stuff that you need to scroll and read forever.