The first draft exists to discover what you think. The second exists to say it. Most writing you read on the web is a first draft.
The distance between the two is not length — a second draft is usually shorter — and it is not polish. It is decision. A first draft hedges. A second draft commits.
The fastest way to tell a first draft apart is to count the clauses beginning with “I think” or “maybe” or “in some sense.” These are the places where the writer is still negotiating with themselves, in public. The job of the second draft is to settle those negotiations, one at a time, and remove them.
A first draft hedges. A second draft commits.
This piece is a second draft. The first one was twice as long.