Seven Days of New Things Day 1: Editing Wikipedia, Sardines

The Challenge

A few days ago, I remarked the following to a community of which I am a member: “I need to do or learn something new.” This sentence codifies a feeling of unease about not having a novel challenge that I have had recently.

While I love doing new things, I often stay within the same comfort zones and slowly edge out into new places, particularly when it comes to activities like watching movies, listening to and playing music, foods I eat, and so on.

On side effect of anxiety is that it is easy to not entertain the prospects of new things: if you know what you like, and what you like has brought you joy, why risk disappointment in trying a new thing? This, written down, seems unwise, but it is easy to believe that this is true, to the extent you seldom even consider the question “what new thing could I do?” that is outside of what you already know.

There is a place for comfort, of course, but there is an equal place for adventure. Of trying new things.

Rather than give in to my anxiety, I’m setting myself a challenge: for the next seven days, starting today, I will consciously decide and do one new thing. This could be something as small as watching a movie (I love Frasier, but I have seen it at least 10 times now; something new would be a boon), or something bigger, like going to a zoo (which I haven’t done in years, but would like to do).

Day 1: Editing Wikipedia

Today, I started by making my first contribution to Wikipedia. This was inspired by Molly White’s excellent “Become a Wikipedian in 30 Minutes” video describing how to set up a Wikipedia account, find a page to edit, and start editing.

I have been curious about editing Wikipedia for a while, but I had reservations. I was worried that my contributions may not be valuable, for there is already so much detailed information on Wikipedia. Molly’s video helped ease this worry through showing just how vast Wikipedia is, and how many opportunities for contribition there are. You don’t need to create a new page. You can add a missing citation. Or add a new sentence with new information. Or fix a citation. And so many other things!

I have been using the Citation Hunt Wikipedia tool to find pages that explicitly call for citations to substantiate claims. I have been clicking the “Next!” button several times until I find a claim for which I think I can find information. I have already learned new things, including:

1. Wikipedia has an interactive tool for writing citations, which makes adding citations easier than it would be if you had to write them manually;
2. Using the “News” tab on Google is a good way to find secondary sources to cite (thanks to Molly’s video for sharing this tip!);
3. It can take quite a bit of sleuthing to find a reliable source for a particular piece of information. This is of particular note to me because I tend to think about how much I have written or completed in a given day. Wikis encourage improving content just as much as writing new content, and both tasks can take just as much time.

Bonus: Sardines

For the last two or so years, I have wanted to try sardines from a tin. I purchased some sardines yesterday and ate them this morning. I learned a few things: (i) you can get boneless sardines in a tin; (ii) sardines taste okay but I am unsure if I like or dislike them, and (iii) sardines aren’t a great morning snack.

Today I did two new things! I’m excited to see what I decide to do tomorrow!