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.
Doing the thing is doing the thing
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Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same. I'm tempted to print this post out and hang it for inspiration. But I guess that would also not be doing the thing.
I have bad ADHD and printed the strangestloop.io blog post out and put it on the wall by my work desk in Oct 2023 according to the printout timestamp. I still haven't done the thing in some meaningful areas, and the print has honestly kind of been dispiriting. I'm going to take this post as the prompt to take it down.
I'm going to consider this with the same weight I would if my future grey-bearded self popped out of a portal to say it, thank you. I've had a sticky note on my monitor for a few years that just says "SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP"; it might be time for that to go before it becomes much more depressing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#23Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#24"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.
Except you do this in a corporate setting and they will stop you the second it works. And then you are stuck maintaining a barely working version forever.
I learned this the bad way, but now I just lie and say it doesn't work until it's good enough for me
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#25Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#26I 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 d…
That’s not a zero-sum game.
Pivoting to zero-planning, would also have a basket of flaws.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#27Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?
Planning is doing the planning thing, but it is not doing the battle thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#28I 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.
That's OK. It's totally fine to not doing the thing. Find joy however you want.
But it's not good to lie to yourself about doing the thing while not doing the thing. If your joy comes from the result of doing the thing, but you're putting time into other things that aren't doing the thing, that joy is not getting any closer.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#29As a person with ADHD, I feel personally attacked.
Coming up with excuses is not doing the thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#30Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?