Has anyone else just stopped reading stories on sites like NYT that block reading if your browser is in private browsing mode?
It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
71–80 of 135 posts
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
For software you should make something - any part - work and release it. Then do regular feature releases after that. If you are not working alone you can ask your marketing people for help, sometimes it is worth waiting for a big bang release, sometimes not (For some things if you miss Christmas you should delay until next Christmas). I recommend you err on the side of release too soon - customers are the ultimate a…
This doesn't work so well for video games. Reviews come out saying its thin on content with a score to match and can kill a game before its had a chance to expand. Developers have started trying to do this more often lately with mixed results, DICE and Blizzard are high profile examples of this. Blizzards latest World of Warcraft expansion was heavily criticized for the lack of content on release day and has yet to s…
The counter-example here would be fortnight.
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#73Has anyone else just stopped reading stories on sites like NYT that block reading if your browser is in private browsing mode?
And all the sites that won’t let me use an ad blocker or Firefox Foxus. I don’t trust any of them not to load 300 ads.
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
For software you should make something - any part - work and release it. Then do regular feature releases after that. If you are not working alone you can ask your marketing people for help, sometimes it is worth waiting for a big bang release, sometimes not (For some things if you miss Christmas you should delay until next Christmas). I recommend you err on the side of release too soon - customers are the ultimate a…
This doesn't work so well for video games. Reviews come out saying its thin on content with a score to match and can kill a game before its had a chance to expand. Developers have started trying to do this more often lately with mixed results, DICE and Blizzard are high profile examples of this. Blizzards latest World of Warcraft expansion was heavily criticized for the lack of content on release day and has yet to s…
Not just videogames, it's also a terrible strategy for something like self-driving cars or medicine, where "Move fast & break things" ends up breaking people.
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#75Paywalled but, I guess the headline contains all the actionable insight already
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
But consider results in consumer technology: Palm versus Blackberry versus iPhone.
Did you use the first iPhone? It had a ton of gaps, even in the market at the time. I believe they would have hamstrung it if not addressed in subsequent versions. I personally have never viewed iPhone as an example of perfectionism in product delivery. To me it's a whole bunch of solid execution over a very long time scale, before and after introduction.
Consumers and the press were much more forgiving of the iPhone's shortcomings than they were with anybody else. The 2007 iPhone was 2G only (when 3G on Nokia, Samsung, and Blackberry phones was standard), and it constantly dropped calls on AT&T in the US. Steve Jobs was in full reality distortion mode thanks to several successful iPod/Mac releases, and people loved the showmanship. Loyalty to Apple wasn't purely about the quality of the product.
The Blackberry Storm was released in 2008 to compete with the iPhone and was completely trashed by critics, despite doing the basics extremely well (call reliability, high quality capacitive touchscreen). I had one at the time and apart from the fact that BBOS 6 wasn't 100% touch-optimized, it was very usable. Unfortunately its app store was lacking, whereas the iOS app store had plenty of flashy, gimmicky apps that better served as a showcase for the iPhone's capabilities (gyroscope, motion sensor, etc) rather than useful functionality.
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#77I’m reminded of a similar online NY Times piece I read, years ago, I think by a woman named Gladys, which was entirely about the harrowing process of procrastinating on, and eventually writing, the piece. All I could think was, poor Gladys. Not, here’s an authority on procrastination. Heck, I’m more of an authority on procrastination, based on my high school and college years alone, not even counting that I’ve overco…
I often tell myself to "just start" rather than to "just get it done," especially when I suspect my anxiety is driving. If I tell myself I'm just going to sit down and pretend-work on the thing that's making me anxious for five minutes, just to get a feel for it, and if it ends up being crappy, I'll just toss it and start over later, I'm usually able to short-circuit the anxious "everything must be well-understood an…
Jordan Peterson has talked about getting something started in the context of "negotiating with yourself" to get past anticipatory anxiety. In short you have a conversation with yourself and agree on some minimal step forward, even if it is seemingly trivial.
Basically it goes something like "Do I agree to update my resume tomorrow?", "No.", "Am I willing to open up my past resume, and just add the companies, positions, and dates?", "Okay, I can do that".
So you realistically go back and forth with yourself until you find some step, even if it seems pathetic, that won't cause much anticipatory anxiety. Then sincerely feel good about getting that step done, because it is infinitely better than do nothing.
I have found that to be a useful mental tool/trick - will edit if I can find the reference because he conveys the concept much better.
Edit References:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQZcpaBqo4&t=5475s "CV Writing Example"
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-kWEDr6VS0&t=3462s "I don’t even have the conscientiousness to sit down and do Self Authoring. I bought it over a year ago and haven’t opened it. What the hell is wrong with me?" (A little more funny, similar thing)
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#78I still build out everything required to realise the vision, and that usually takes at least months to build.
There's an analogy in startups that you should build a great skateboard first if your vision is to build a better car, but I just don't agree.
If you have a vision for a better car then you need to deliver a better car, not a skateboard, because, well a skateboard just isn't a car. https://blog.crisp.se/2016/01/25/henrikkniberg/making-sense-...
If my idea is to create a business for sharing cars, but it's cheaper and quicker to build a business where local kids drive you around on their pushbikes, I just don't see that as being the same. Those who argue for skateboards versus cars would say "well you are solving the problem of rental transport and starting in a practical way". Meh.
The other thing I think is important is not to waste the initial attention for your product on something that is not in fact the true vision of what you had in mind.
But so far I haven't succeeded so my philosophy can't be given much credence.
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
For software you should make something - any part - work and release it. Then do regular feature releases after that. If you are not working alone you can ask your marketing people for help, sometimes it is worth waiting for a big bang release, sometimes not (For some things if you miss Christmas you should delay until next Christmas). I recommend you err on the side of release too soon - customers are the ultimate a…
This doesn't work so well for video games. Reviews come out saying its thin on content with a score to match and can kill a game before its had a chance to expand. Developers have started trying to do this more often lately with mixed results, DICE and Blizzard are high profile examples of this. Blizzards latest World of Warcraft expansion was heavily criticized for the lack of content on release day and has yet to s…
With videogames in the cloud, you can release the first level, then work on the next level.
You can even make it so that players can't reach the end of level 1 before you've completed level 2 :)
Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds like some non-engineer talk that ends up fucking the team up 1 year later as there code starts breaking everywhere, the code becomes very difficult to refactor, new hires start to struggle ramping up, etc. I agree that sometimes people can be too focused on perfection in code reviews but consistency, modularity, and other seemingly unimportant things are crucial in maintaining hygiene for your project
> This sounds like some non-engineer talk Does it merely sound like non-engineer talk, or is it actually non-engineer talk? I just want to make sure you aren't making the wrong assumption or implying the wrong thing. I've been saying what I've been saying as a result of my 5+ years experience doing full-time software engineering. > I agree that sometimes people can be too focused on perfection in code reviews but con…
What I meant is, I've heard this kind of language from non-engineers before (mostly PMs) trying to get developers to ship something in a bad state. Most probably because they'll be gone before they start having to deal with the repercussions of the technical debt.
>Limiting the amount of review iterations in a unit of work
Fully agree. I think there should only be two iterations max, preferably just one.
>splitting feedback-related work into other tickets
Would never work at places I've worked. The backlog of "important tasks" is never-ending so code cleanups, optimizations, etc. never get done because there is always higher priority work. This isn't really in control of the team because even if the PM agrees to let you lose a week of productivity making the code better without adding features there's a good chance their manager, the engineering director, etc. won't like to see that. So at least in my experience you only have one shot at getting that code in a good state, with the alternative being the code slowly getting worse and worse until it gets so bad you opt for a rewrite or lengthy refactor