All people who write usually recommend that would-be writers should "write what you know best." So, in this forum, I decided to talk about what normally stops me from writing--the dreaded notion that it won't amount to anything worthy of publication. I'd be a great mom, I know. Can you imagine saying to your own toddler, "Don't bother crawling, you'll probably never become an olympic athlete"?

I don't have kids so this isn't my particular temptation. Rather, my concern is overcoming the grandiosity gene, the one that came into being generations ago in my family. The genetic error seems to say, "Unless your work is amazing, keep it to yourself." Truth be told, my grandfather actually gave my siblings and myself this advice, "If you're wondering whether to do something or not, ask yourself, 'could this action be written about on the front page of The New York Times?'" German philosopher Immanuel Kant had a similar framework--what he termed the categorical imperative: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." 

How does this relate to writing? What are the key differences between my Grandfather & Kant? What do you think?