Performance

It seems to me that there's something unique about performing something, as opposed to practicing it. Normally we think about that distinction in terms of the arts, but I think it applies equally well to other work. Part of what makes code-on-a-whiteboard interviews so famously bad, for example, is that most people are used to writing and rewriting code in private before anyone else gets to see it. That's not to say you can't write code in public, but it's a skill you'd have to develop separately.

I think the distinction between practice and performance involves a kind of bar that you set, saying "until it gets to this point, I'm not making it public". And you behave differently when that line isn't there. It provides you with a kind of safety: if you make a mistake or do something wrong, you can just go back and fix it before it passes the bar. Not having a bar forces you to deal with your mistakes rather than erase them, and it forces you work differently because you know you whatever you do is going to be judged immediately, rather than waiting until you're ready.

Maybe that's not what you want all the time, but it seems very valuable to be able to perform what you know, rather than just practice it.