How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
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How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#2One other reason: they just aren't afraid to fail. I know a lot of people that want to do things, and do try, but immediately feel overwhelmed by the impossibility of it all. The most prolific creators I know realize failure is a pretty uneventful outcome: you just move on to some other interesting thing.
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#3They just freaking do it. And it is not about quantity over quality. There are a lot of people who pretend they are busy and do not have time but in reality they are just postponing, procrastinating or killing their time by over investing in shipped goods with no direct benefit or simply wasting time.
If you are reading this and could be using this time for something more productive I suggest to close the tab. It doesn't matter what is written above or underneath this comment. At this point you are not shipping things and killing time. "But this comment thread is important!". No it's not. Close the tab. Right now. You can thank me later.
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#4"It's not smarts or talent."
I wouldn't be so sure...
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#5they probably also know how to get people to help them. If you have x more hours in the day it makes it that much easier to ship.
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#6"It's not smarts or talent." I wouldn't be so sure...
Thanks for your kind words and support!
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#7One other reason: they just aren't afraid to fail. I know a lot of people that want to do things, and do try, but immediately feel overwhelmed by the impossibility of it all. The most prolific creators I know realize failure is a pretty uneventful outcome: you just move on to some other interesting thing.
I'd also add that they know how to recover from failure.
For example, I'm learning to program, and I can move pretty quickly on things, as long as I'm getting enough information to make the next step. To me, failure with feedback is awesome! But every so often, I hit a problem and don't even know how to analyze the available information to move past the error, and I tend to get bogged down at that point.
For the more experienced programmers out there, I wish there were a Stack Overflow for troubleshooting specific problems, not as a reference for future people, but as (a) a way for novice learners to help get 'unbogged' and (b) slightly more experienced, but still junior developers to review other learners' code and help them debug (which is in and of itself, as much, and sometimes more of, a learning experience than actually coding something in the first place).
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#8Well, I've noticed that I have two very distinct modes that correspond quite closely to the Meyers Briggs judging/perceiving trait. INTP mode is open to new things, but unable to get anything done, and INTJ mode is closed off, but terribly effective.
To make real things with computers is actually a lot easier than deciding in which of the many possible ways you would like to make things with computers. You simply cannot let second-order concerns (shopping for tools) dominate first-order concerns (building things).
If you feel like you're in a rut, try solving some synthetic exercises that ask you to solve some simple string or integer array puzzles using no libraries.
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#9A single person can have periods of shipping so damn much, and others of not shipping a damn.
I apply a few tricks when I detect I am in a low productivity season (like right now, I hate to admit):
- Drop those projects or activities that are sucking time but are not really going anywhere
- Create weekly and daily TODO lists (sometimes on paper, others in Trelll)
- Be more disciplined about my daily TODO list: won't go to bed until the last item of today's list is done
- Monitor my computer usage (I use RescueTime for that)
Re: How Do Some People Ship So Damn Much, I Want to Be Like Them
#10For me, a lot comes down to that complicated "work/life balance". I need to make sure I get enough sleep, I get varieties of stimulation, I get enough time with the people I really love (love is a HUGE part of my life)... that I'm balanced. If the balance goes out of whack, if I overfocus on one thing, my broader productivity drops precipitously.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Every time you sprint, you reduce your marathon speed. Sprints wipe out energy reserves that need replenished. I'll bet if you look at the high-productivity people you admire, you rarely see them panicked against a hard deadline with impossible requirements. They don't get into those situations, because they know what it will do to their overall productivity.
Also? Success breeds success, and comfort with occasional failure breeds comfort with occasional failure. The biggest cause of procrastination and paralysis imho is fear of failure, of doing something wrong. Look at the billions of questions on internet forums of the "What is the best X for Y?" form. People won't try to do Y, because they don't have the "best" X. They fear that if they don't have the best X, they'll fail - which is in itself a magical belief that X is the source of success. It's not X that succeeds - it's I.
Really productive people also have good process. They're skilled at breaking down complex tasks into manageable pieces. And no, asking "What is the best process for maximum productivity?" will not get you there. Try processes, and see what happens. Refine by iteration.
Highly effective people are also very good at saying no. There's more interesting stuff to do, more demands on your time and resources, than anyone can possibly do. Learning to say no, quickly and firmly, is the best way to save your energy for the things that get a yes. Dabbling and dithering doesn't get work done. It wastes time and energy.
Wow, I should blog about this.