"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe."
I still believe there's a mise en place step before doing the thing, when quality counts.
Doing the thing is doing the thing
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Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you may have slightly misunderstood the article. "Preparation" isn't mentioned explicitly, but by my reading it would come firmly under "is not doing the thing".
Getting everyone to fall in love with the thing is not doing the thing... learned this as a data scientist brought in to work on a project which ended soon thereafter. A team of 20 people spent 1.5 years getting people to love an idea which never materialized. Time was wasted because the technical limitations and issues came too late... it died as a 40 page postmortem that will never see daylight.
I learned that lesson as a solo dev on a project that lasted a year, then learned it again as a team of 4 on a 2-year project. I've not had to learn the lesson again but I've certainly trod the same path... 20 people (including some VERY expensive contractors), 3.5 years, AU$80m to deliver what amounts to a timesheeting system that needs a team of 10 people manually massaging the data every month to make it work.
How do you not be "toxic" after that? How do you retain a chipper attitude when you know for a rock-solid certainty that even if the project is successful it's likely by accident?
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#83"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.
My two favorite bits of wisdom in this vein: Dan Harmon's advice on writer's block: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/5b2w4c/dan_h... > You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you're an asshole. So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team "I will one day write something good" to team "I have…
Henry Rollins too.
'“One day, I’m gonna write that novel.” Pal? You better start tomorrow morning because the right time never happens. It’s when you boldly determine it. It’s like running on a rainy day. You’re fine once you get out there. The only difficulty is getting off the couch when you lace your shoes up.'
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#84Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#85"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe." I still believe there's a mise en place step before doing the thing , when quality counts.
If some task has a known step-by-step pattern, then doing it step by step makes perfect sense. That is doing the thing. Taking the known shortest/best path.
Doing the thing is going to involve both direct steps, and indirect steps necessary to do the direct steps.
Not doing the thing involves doing things other than the shortest/safest/effective path to getting the thing done.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#86The article was great — for solopreneurs. There are things that humans have to unfortunately do when working as a group of people. That's why we became the alpha predator. Not because we were the strongest ape. That includes: - Filling in timesheets, quarterly, half yearly cycles, company meetings, team meetings is not doing the thing — as a solopreneur. But not as a member of a group. - Writing tickets, reviewing PR…
"Filling in timesheets" sucks until you want to qualify for R&D credits.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#87"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe." I still believe there's a mise en place step before doing the thing , when quality counts.
If some task has a known step-by-step pattern, then doing it step by step makes perfect sense. That is doing the thing. Taking the known shortest/best path. Doing the thing is going to involve both direct steps, and indirect steps necessary to do the direct steps. Not doing the thing involves doing things other than the shortest/safest/effective path to getting the thing done.
Sure, but a lot of the things on the list marked as “not doing the thing” are actually important early steps to doing the thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
And running the marathon is just running the marathon? I disagree. Big part of running the marathon is in the preparation. Weeks after weeks of training and not skipping a single session. The marathon itself is the tip of the iceberg; important but not the whole "thing".
No matter how much preparation and training one does, if they haven’t run the marathon, they haven’t run the marathon.
Right, but conversely you can’t run the marathon unless you train. You can’t skip straight to doing the thing.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#89I get the sentiment, but thinking and planning are important steps to doing things. Obviously you can’t stop there, and you shouldn’t spend too much time on that part, but it is still important.
Re: Doing the thing is doing the thing
#90Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
Are they "not doing the thing", or are they "doing the different thing"?