"Somebody has probably already done that." I'm sure most of us have used this dismissive phrase before. For me it is paralyzing. I'm a big fan of standardization. If somebody has made something, it seems like madness for somebody else to make the same thing (because then we have two different versions to deal with rather than simply having the one). It's easy for several people to independently come up with the same idea. Now with the vast connectivity the internet provides, we can see all those people presenting the idea. Plus there are many talented people with either more time, resources, or devotion than me that present those ideas so well, that they put my little journals to shame. I've lost count of the topics I never wrote about because I saw someone (usually the vlogbrothers) already made a video of that topic presented much more clearly and thoroughly than I could have even imagined. So why should I bother writing about something when it's already been done better? Nowadays I just assume "somebody has probably already done that". It's so common that I want a word to replace the phrase. But I think writing is a skill best honed out of repetition which itself is driven by habit. Most of my journals probably won't be the best resource for any topic, but if I want to write well to make such an achievement, I'll need plenty of practice.