Is “Coming Soon” a Personality Trait Now?
Somewhere between “just playing around” and “coming soon” lives our favorite modern pastime: the soft launch.
That quiet post. The vague caption. The “coming soon” that never quite arrives. The soft launch has become our collective comfort zone — a way to move without being fully seen, to share without really risking anything. Perfectionism dressed up as strategy, protection disguised as poise. But underneath it, there’s a question worth asking: when did “almost ready” become the default?
We’ve all done it.
Not just for relationships anymore.
We’re soft-launching ideas, careers, even new versions of ourselves. It’s the art of existing in beta. A quiet test run to see who’s paying attention, who gets it, and who’s just scrolling by. And I noticed that we don’t announce things anymore; we hint at them. A repost here. A vague caption there. “Something’s brewing.” We’ve replaced press releases with mystery. And maybe that’s the point. The soft launch is safer. It’s the cultural middle ground between fear and audacity. A way to move without risking too much of yourself.
But I keep thinking about what happens when soft becomes a lifestyle; when we hold our work hostage to readiness, and our voice never makes it past the draft folder. Or when “protecting the vision” starts looking a lot like hiding.
I certainly had to be brutally honest with myself…most things never feel ready. Not the brand deck. Not the email. Not the version of you you’re waiting to become before you start posting again.
And if we’re being very real, most of the greats didn’t soft-launch. They just launched.
Bad lighting, half-finished ideas, messy edits and all. They let us witness the evolution instead of waiting for the end product. So maybe the real flex isn’t the quiet build. Perhaps it’s the loud reveal: not performative, but present.
Culture moves fast. And the people who shape it aren’t waiting for permission. So if you’re sitting on something, whether it be a project, a rebrand, a version of yourself that feels new — this is your friendly nudge. DO THE THING!
