Two cakes
Mikko wrote a rousing post, Be the one out there which reminded me of the Holy shit! Two cakes! meme.
Two Cakes can get used as a bit of a catch-all but to me it's specifically really helpful when comparing oneself to others and doubting the validity of doing your thing because there are already people out there doing it.
Creative people tend not to have the most rational, objective takes on their own work. I need Two Cakes style thinking all the time. I read stuff so good I think I should just pack up and go home. I've written about it before.
Except, hang on, having lots of things is good? Where would fandoms be if there was just one fic? One piece of art? It's contributing, it's giving a gift.
The publishing industry would fall apart if there was only one of a thing. We expect there to be more than one of a thing. To cater for different tastes, and to give people who love the thing something to read next. It's trends - people want more of what they like.
As always there's the 'there's nothing new under the sun' argument, and so on and so forth. Human brains are wonderful but generally run along the same tracks and there are a lot of us. The same stuff is going to come up.
Plus, I can guarantee, no one went straight into making massive beautiful cakes. That is not their first cake. They started with a plain little cake and built up from there. Learnt new techniques, practiced, experimented, probably made something inedible along the way. Another thing to remember is that the person I feel like the plain little cake to also feels like a plain little cake to someone else. And so on into infinity.
Think also of personal taste, personal preference. The massive beautiful cake is great, but maybe a reader is allergic to one of its fancy ingredients.
Mikko says "be the one out there." Because ideas are cheap! The thing must actually be done. (To the guy in the modern art exhibit wanging on about how he could do this: but you didn't, did you!)
I'm automatically impressed by anyone who can get a thing done and out there - a blog post, a chapter, artwork, a game, whatever. It can be tough. It takes energy and effort and a leap of faith. And I appreciate that, a lot.