I was just reading about Ron Jeffries' disastrous attempts to write a Sudoku program because he dogmatically refused to do any preparatory work--including spending any time at all thinking about the nature of the problem and what sorts of data structures would be suitable for solving it.
Things that aren't doing the thing
131–140 of 220 posts
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#132That text is describing my life since 10 years or so. I am in my 30s and lost the capability to do the thing, _any_ thing, with the exception of going out with friends/family/my partner to do social activities. Everything else is literally impossible for me to do.
I’m currently kicking off my second attempt to fix this by talking to a psychologist about it. But I am not very hopeful. Still searching for the root cause. I have all the ground works set to having a good life, except that I am incapable of moving to start that damn thing.
Where is my interest in stuff gone? Why do I prefer my couch over just typing "git clone" and play with some new tech? Why is my 3D printer sitting dusty in the corner even though I was one of the first adopters? Why is the act of hand-craft wood working, that I am dreaming of since forever and would now be able to do, impossible for me to start?
My motivation is high. My brain thinks whole projects through. I start fixing things in my head. But I am not even capable of dumping all that planning into an speech-to-text-LLM to build an actual design document out of it.
It feels like I played everything through already, so no point in starting that thing.
What the fuck is my problem?
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#133That text is describing my life since 10 years or so. I am in my 30s and lost the capability to do the thing, _any_ thing, with the exception of going out with friends/family/my partner to do social activities. Everything else is literally impossible for me to do. I’m currently kicking off my second attempt to fix this by talking to a psychologist about it. But I am not very hopeful. Still searching for the root caus…
At the risk of making unqualified self-diagnoses, the phrase that always comes to my mind is "anticipatory anhedonia": On some level I do not expect the thing will actually be that fun, and I'm not filled with bubbly joy now about how awesome it'll be when it happens tomorrow.
I may have fun during the thing, but beforehand it's mostly trying to plan for what might go wrong, and afterwards it fades to the satisfaction of checking something off of a list.
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#134Marketing is absolutely doing the thing; ignore this to your peril. I don't think reality is quite as binary as this post suggests.
But that would be doing the thing after you’ve done the thing no?
Marketing can also lead to you receiving feedback for what the users actually want. Doing the thing does not imply doing the right thing. You can be super productive building the wrong thing that no one wants.
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#135I find this applies pretty well to creative work, at least from a general mindset perspective and helps those of us who are prone to procrastinating.
It also goes hand in hand with the Cult Of Done Manifesto really well: https://medium.com/@bre/the-cult-of-done-manifesto-724ca1c2f...
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#136I find this applies pretty well to creative work, at least from a general mindset perspective and helps those of us who are prone to procrastinating. It also goes hand in hand with the Cult Of Done Manifesto really well: https://medium.com/@bre/the-cult-of-done-manifesto-724ca1c2f...
> “If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it”
These people defo do not have kids…
Go have some kids, then lecture me about how to get things done.
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#137> Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing. For some types of work, the work we call prep work is 90% of the work and most of what determines how well the finished product turns out. Painting is a good example. You can grab a bucket of paint and paint brush and start “doing the thing” by slapping paint on the surface. Your paint job is going to be very poor and fail early relative to a professional who properl…
I think in this example those prep work items _are_ doing the thing. But then telling people about a new product could also be doing the thing. There’s definitely something to be said for defining what the thing really is being an important part of doing it, but that can also spiral out of control into not doing the thing. I think thingness is more of a variable property of the current thing you are doing. Than a bin…
I'd say for the purposes of this article anything that is required in order to have done the thing is "doing the thing".
If you need to read something to get the thing done you are doing the thing. If you already know everything to get started but still read another article you are procrastinating. If you need to sand this part to do a good job painting it, then you are doing the thing. If you just continue sanding with no benefit you are no longer doing the thing, you are now just delaying the next step
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#138Did I just get trolled on HN? Reading the thing wasn't doing anything.
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prep work sucks. In whatever field, I always love hearing from the greats how they make the hard work a little less sucky. Good tools, better workflows, figuring out what they can let slide, accepting the struggle and getting zen. The people who do it 80% right and manage to make peace with that always seem the most productive.
I don’t think prep work sucks. Cleaning up after, though… Although maybe that’s just prep work for the next time ;-).
As German ex-football (soccer) coach Sepp Herberger would say "Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel" (After the game is before the game).
Re: Things that aren't doing the thing
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can do a good job if you want to. But that usually required taking a step back and thinking about these 20% you didn't manage last time. Maybe you use the wrong approach, the wrong tool, maybe your tool is no longer sharp because you told yourself prep sucks. 80/20 is a good philosophy if you just want to earn a living, but a bad philosophy if you want to reach mastery (which coincidentally can translate into mak…
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. It's complicated. I'm a perfectionist miniature painter by hobby. I love the stories floating around about how quantity can lead to quality (photography, pottery): https://austinkleon.com/2020/12/10/quantity-leads-to-quality... In most of my hobbies I feel like my growth and talent is limited by lack of volume, not my care or attention to detail. It's hard to let go and use one colo…
If it is a hobby then probably the most important bit of advice is that you keep doing it in a way that lets you enjoy it. If you feel you need to become better regularity (translating to quantity) is in fact important, especially if you're the perfectionist type.
Coincidentally I teach (medialab) at one of the most recognized art universities in Europe and have a MA of fine arts and my mother is a painter. In my judgement the most overlooked (or most underrated) skill when it comes to painting is perception. Being a good painter aside from the manual skill has a lot to do with seeing or being able to see, even if you're not doing figurative paintings.
Painting more and more different things can be a good way to raise your own perception skills. It is also important to revisit old works occasionally. Ideally you will immediately see what was wring (or good) with them, something you may have not perceived back when you did it. This is proof that you leveled up.