Doing the thing is doing the thing

"Doing it badly is doing the thing."

This one works for me, and I've learned it from a post on HN. Whenever I feel stuck or overthink how to do something, just do it first - even with all the flaws that I'm already aware of, and if it feels almost painful to do it so badly. Then improve it a bit, then a bit, then before I know it a clear picture start to emerge... Feels like magic.

I used to think this. Then I noticed how often "preparation" became its own infinite loop.

At work we built something from a 2-page spec in 4 months. The competing team spent 8 months on architecture docs before writing code. We shipped. They pivoted three times and eventually disbanded.

Planning has diminishing returns. The first 20% of planning catches 80% of the problems. Everything after that is usually anxiety dressed up as rigor.

The article's right about one thing: doing it badly still counts. Most of what I know came from shipping something embarrassing, then fixing it.

On the other hand.. planning, preparation and mise-en-place can help with doing the thing.

This is very similar to [1] (as discussed here [2]). It is a good message though, which is why I remember the earlier post at all.

1. https://strangestloop.io/essays/things-that-arent-doing-the-...

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45939431

I kinda agree, but I also gain pleasure from doing all those things that are not supposed to be "the thing". The thinking, the dreaming, the visualizing... I just like that. I do it a lot when working on personal projects (which some of them I never ship). I think it's fine, and I wouldn't go as far as saying that those things are "not doing the thing"; in many ways those things are "the thing", at least for me.

"Failing while doing the thing is doing the thing."

I needed this today. Currently questioning my career choices, as I hit my first wall where people are involved. Gave me quite the headache.

Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?

As a person with ADHD, I feel personally attacked.

Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?

Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.

"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights!"

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