"I used to think that to write a book one only need to sit down and write a book. This is a dangerous false belief that I think people share" - David Kadavy, How to Write a Book
When I first read this, I was amused -"dangerous"? Mistaken - certainly. Counterproductive - sure. But dangerous? Why should a wrong belief about writing a book be dangerous.
This is not to say that beliefs cannot be dangerous - for instance if I believe someone is evil and take it upon myself to rid the world of this evil, I would agree that it is a dangerous belief.
But why would the belief that writing a book is a linear process - something you hunker down and white knuckle out from start to finish - is "dangerous"?
Kadavy does go on to clarify, but let me summarise it in my own words.
If you believe that writing a book is something you need to do linearly in one very intensive campaign, excluding everything else from your life, you would be perfectly justified in putting it off. It would be more prudent to wait and plan for it - because doing otherwise would be disruptive to yourself and probably to others who live or work with you.
So this belief makes people put writing the book off. And for most people, it means putting it off forever - because it is not possible for most people to free themselves up for an extended period of time and devote it completely to the task of writing.
Ok. So that means a book does not get written. Why is that dangerous? What harm has that caused?
The harm, in the main, is to yourself - or rather to your future self. By putting off working on something that offers significant personal growth, you deprive yourself from growing into a better thinker and writer. You get in the way of your potential being materialised.
One could also argue that you deprive others of the opportunity to engage with your ideas - with the unique perspectives that you would bring to their attention. And even if that it isn't dangerous, it is selfish and shunning your responsibility.
Now, normally, the realisation that you are harming yourself (and potentially others) is enough to get you to take action. However, in this case, since you believe that taking action requires more effort than you can muster, and causes more disruption in the short term, you feel justified in putting it off until the time is right.
That is what makes this belief dangerous - it allows you to justify delaying, often endlessly, something that is essential to your personal growth, and results in limiting the person you could potentially be.