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It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

nytimes.com

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Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#121

Post by aiisjustanif »

amelius wrote: post #79
paddlepop wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

God, that sounds absolutely awful.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#122

Post by mjlangiii »

ohazi wrote: post #19
dgreensp wrote: post #12

I’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…

When you say you want to completely understand the problem before starting, your personality sounds like an enneagram type 5, check it out to see if that describes you. If so, that might shine a lot of light on where your anxiety comes from.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#123

Post by bluGill »

zaphod4prez wrote: post #64
bluGill wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That anecdote seems to be a story that was just made up. It is believable if the students have never done ceramics before, however if the students have done a lot before I would expect thinking about what to make would become more useful than doing something again for the millionth time.

I also remember this story and hearing that it was just made-up rather than real. However, I know a lot of professional artists and most of them do not have a process that consists of "sitting and thinking about what to make." It is often a generative process that consists of making small/sketchy things and iteratively fleshing it out. In other words, although that anecdote doesn't seem to be referencing any sort of…

I agree that spending most of a class thinking about what to produce is not useful. However just creating without thought isn't the best way either. Someplace in the middle is where to be.

That is get an idea, and create it in sketch form. Then examine the sketch (often waiting a few days is required to be a good critic of your own work). If the idea is good start fleshing it out a little at a time - examining it critically at each step. In some mediums you can erase, in others you need to create a new sketch of the same. Eventually you get something good. Many artists will have more than one piece in progress at a time so they can have that break to get away from their mental investment and look critically at it. (this last is not universal)

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#124

Post by bluGill »

paddlepop wrote: post #70
bluGill wrote: post #60

Earlier 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…

Which is why I said sometimes it is worth waiting for a big bang release. You need to understand your product and customers.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#125

Post by lpellis »

ohazi wrote: post #19
dgreensp wrote: post #12

I’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…

Joel also had a good essay on this, fire and motion. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#126

Post by rchaud »

jdsully wrote: post #95
rchaud wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 abou…

The polish was in the fluidity of the interface. To make touch easy the interface couldn’t jump around just as you touched the screen. Its not that the iPhone was fast - but when it couldn’t render it showed a square pattern and still scrolled roughly in tune with your finger. None of the other players thought that was important.

Wow, that took me back...I remember the little mosaic graphic to display parts of the web page that the browser hadn't loaded. Feels like a lifetime ago, but it makes sense to have that little bit of UX improvement, since back then all we had were full-fat desktop websites.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#127

Post by brennebeck »

lixtra wrote: post #115
mathieuh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah same here. Half the time I ask someone to pair with me it’s because I simply cannot muster the motivation to do anything for whatever reason. I find I go through a couple of weeks of this a couple of times a year, I guess you’d call it mild burnout.

If you assume mild burnout, do you think it’s long term the right strategy to force yourself through it? What would your body have to do to tell you that it’s not mild anymore? What if it does? Take care!

Just a bit of anecdotal experience for additional thought: I did the same for years, ignoring the signs, pushing through long hours, etc. and eventually developed idiopathic epilepsy. As it’s idiopathic, there’s no known direct cause (e.g. no head trauma, no tumors, etc.), but there’s a decent amount of evidence that supports at least a strong correlation between my lifestyle (lack of sleep, overwork, etc.) and the development of the disease. And of course lack of sleep is now one of my primary triggers, but that’s also fairly common amongst epileptics once the disease is ‘active’.

Best wishes GP.

Edit: point really being: it’s mild burnout until it’s not.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#128

Post by ravenstine »

opportune wrote: post #80
ravenstine wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 f…

That's a totally valid point, and perhaps I am too optimistic. I do think that a company with the right values could do that properly, but most don't, including best ones I have worked for.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#130

Post by xenospn »

dang wrote: post #119
xenospn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

coughs Chinese Democracy cough

" Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I was referring to the Guns N' Roses album.
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