by jackfranklyn
16 subcomments
- The "doing it badly" principle changed everything for me. I spent weeks planning the perfect architecture for some automation tools I was building. Then I just... stopped planning and built the ugly version that solved my own pain point.
What surprised me was how much the ugly first version taught me that planning never could. You learn what users actually care about (often not what you expected), which edge cases matter in practice, and what "good enough" looks like in context.
The hardest part is giving yourself permission to ship something you know is flawed. But the feedback loop from real usage is worth more than weeks of hypothetical architecture debates.
by TheAlchemist
7 subcomments
- "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.
by longnguyen
2 subcomments
- The essay is quite similar to this one from strangestloop.io[0]
[0]: https://strangestloop.io/essays/things-that-arent-doing-the-...
- At a previous company we used to joke that most of management was a "problem admiration society":
They'd love to talk about problems, investigate them from all angles, make plans on how to plan to solve the problem, identify who caused it or how to blame for it, quantify how much it costs us or how much money we could make from solving it, everything and anything except actually doing something about it.
It was never about doing the thing.
- I 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 dressed up as rigor.
The article's right about one thing: doing it badly still counts. Most of what I know came from shipping something embarrassing, then fixing it.
by jillesvangurp
1 subcomments
- Analysis paralysis is a thing. And as the article makes very clear, there are a lot of ways to get stuck doing anything else then the one thing you are supposed to be doing.
The way to break through that is indeed to start doing. Forget about the edge cases. Handle the happy path first. Build something that does enough to deliver most of the value. Then refine it; or rebuild it.
Seriously. The cost of prototyping is very low these days. So try stuff out and learn something. Don't be afraid to fail.
One reason LLMs are so shockingly effective for this is that they don't do analysis paralysis; they start doing right away. The end results aren't always optimal or even good but often still good enough. You can optimize and refine later. If that is actually needed. Worst case you'll fail to get a useful thing but you'll have a lot better understanding of the requirements for the next attempt. With AI the sunk cost is measured in tokens. It's not free. But also not very expensive. You can afford to burn some tokens to learn something.
A good rule is to not build a framework or platform for anything until you've built at least three versions of the type of thing that you would use it for. Anything you build before that is likely to be under and overengineered in exactly the wrong places. These places make themselves clear when you build a real system.
- This is very similar to [1] (as discussed here [2]). It is a good message though, which is why I remember the earlier post at all.
1. https://strangestloop.io/essays/things-that-arent-doing-the-...
2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45939431
- On the other hand: sometimes doing the thing is itself a bad idea. One reason I continue to insist on design docs and code review is that I'd rather find this out ahead of time rather than deal with the damage afterwards.
In the GenAI era, "doing the thing badly without planning" has become so easy that some counterweight is needed.
by thunfischtoast
0 subcomment
- A lot of tech-savvy people (like me) love solving meta-problems.
Doing the thing that would take 10 minutes? Na man, let me build an unnecessary complicated technical solution that in theory enables hundreds of people to do the thing much more efficiently in just 2 minutes. That takes a month and the thing has not been done, ha.
by HPsquared
2 subcomments
- On the other hand.. planning, preparation and mise-en-place can help with doing the thing.
- In "Remains of The Day" they call just talking about "the thing" an indulgence. Which is really what it is, it feels good, isn't hard, and doesn't achieve anything.
The characters in the book are quick to cut non-productive discussions short, but it feels like the feel good discussions around "the thing" are about as far as many people want to go these days.
by wanderingmind
1 subcomments
- My nitpick is that thinking and dreaming about solving the problem is part of doing. Its the planning phase. Skipping This planning phase in Software engineering is the root cause of most Day 2 operations issues. However I agree that thinking or announcing about outcome is not doing.
- "Failing while doing the thing is doing the thing."
I needed this today. Currently questioning my career choices, as I hit my first wall where people are involved. Gave me quite the headache.
by dondraper36
4 subcomments
- As a person with ADHD, I feel personally attacked.
- The 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 PRs is not doing the thing — as a solopreneur.
- Commuting to work and back is not doing the thing — If I'm a solopreneur this doesn't even matter.
- Answering technical questions, analyzing data, attending to bugs is not doing the thing — If I'm a solopreneur especially on a greenfield stuff, I have zero baggage.
- Writing test cases and putting up alerts is not doing the thing — if it's only me judging me, I have nothing to judge.
- > "Buying tools for the thing is not doing the thing."
This one hit me right in the feels, I have been buying more woodworking/DIY tools than the projects I've worked on with them.
- This is something I ran into, ego satisfaction, where you tell people/show things like concepts, talk about it, get the "that sounds cool" but yeah it's not real. I now try to build something real like a hardware project before showing it.
- Writing a litany about doing the thing is not doing the thing.
Posting on HN about doing the thing is not doing the thing.
Commenting about doing the thing is not doing the thing.
Guilty as charged, going back to work.
- 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.
- I split activities at work into "Engineering" and "Talking about Engineering". We're a consultancy so there's a certain amount of "Talking about Engineering" that is required and good, but I try not to lose sight of what is actually engineering and what isn't.
What I am still on the fence about is when "design" or "architecture" type work counts as Engineering. There's a certain amount of design work that is valuable to do before coding and is part of the thinking process. But sometimes you get into a lot of abstract talking that is "not doing the thing".
by poolnoodle
2 subcomments
- Am I crazy or have I read this or a very similar post before?
- Could’ve ended with “I should get back to doing the thing”
by robofanatic
3 subcomments
- Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
by KolibriFly
0 subcomment
- Failure, bad execution, and tiny progress all count. That's the part people conveniently forget while optimizing their toolchains and workflows
- Will this continue to be true? I do agree with the principle. But I've sometimes had the feeling that poor design upfront can have compounding consequences, especially when AI is filling in ambiguities.
by nowittyusername
0 subcomment
- I wholeheartedly agree. In an age of talking heads. you will not hear from the people actually doing the thing. because they too busy doing the thing versus talking about it. now excuse me ima go back to doing the thing.
by cortesoft
1 subcomments
- I 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.
- A bit of a meta lesson for me here: Writing a short, pointed, opinionated blog post is blogging. If I care about blogging my thoughts, I need to just do it, not worry about rigor or depth ahead of time
by s3micolon0
0 subcomment
- This is a useful methodology and article nudges the reader towards doing things and "taking action". I am sure it will appeal to a huge number of people and indeed, rightly it has climbed to the top of HN, else I would have completely missed it.
I have found these articles on the exact same topic to be creating more actionable mindset.
1. The cult of done by No Boilderplate: https://youtu.be/bJQj1uKtnus?si=efV5OTF35LcDjuN3. Through the years, I have come back to this video many a times and even have the Cult of Done manifesto (snipped from this video) stuck on to my wall.
2. High agency by George Mack: https://www.highagency.com/. This is a long form article and sitting and just reading it has helped me unblock myself. I have a bookmark of this on my favourites bar at all times.
by matchagaucho
1 subcomments
- "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.
- > Writing a blog about doing the thing is not doing the thing.
I like that this was included.
by OpenDrapery
4 subcomments
- Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?
- Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?
- This version has the general form of the original, So why does it seem there is something odd about it?
Whoever the guy from ‘Strangest Loop’ is it’s my impression that it’s meant to resonate with self-starters; as if he’s speaking from that vantage of and for hustle culture. The grinders. The movers. The seniors. The managers. The founders. [1]
I don’t get that vibe from this derivative and in fact I think it carries a slight affect of a neurotic employee while the original airs determination. Reading this brings one into the mind of an observer, the founder of a VC firm, watching OP wring over a Palo Alto brewed latte.
[1] Am I the only one who was unable to find out his actual name on this website?
by taikahessu
0 subcomment
- Reading or adding comments is not doing the thing.
- I don’t get it? Are they sharing a quote they liked or taking credit for it? Maybe they just saw the YouTube video and decided to turn it into the page?
Edit:
Seems like a way to show they’re looking for roles, I guess.
by _springbootapp
0 subcomment
- Brother please add proper exception handling :/D
- Thanks for this. It is timely.
by ramshanker
0 subcomment
- Thank you for shaking me once more .....
by oldestofsports
0 subcomment
- > Buying tools for the thing is not doing the thing.
Why not? If i need a saw to build a deck, buying a saw must be the first step?
by neko_ranger
1 subcomments
- "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights!"
- So the typical nonsensical argument is that an architect should be a builder.
Alright.
You can very much do the thing when it's not too costly to fuck up. For many important things, thinking about doing the thing is even more important than doing the thing.
by COMMENT___
2 subcomments
- Oh, now HN is discussing a meaningless copy-pasted self promotion blog post. I guess this says something about the current state of the HN community.
- in short learn by doing.
by globalnode
0 subcomment
- as a counter point, in another current thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46789913, there's a discussion of the "hostile codebase" of openssl. maybe they neglected preparation and "just did it"?
- TLDR: "Just do it." ~ Nike
by PrettiGoodDead
0 subcomment
- [flagged]
- > Doing it badly is doing the thing.
No it's not. Sometimes (or maybe most of the time) doing it badly means maybe it's not your thing.
I used to have a neighbour who liked to play the piano and sing. He was doing it consistently badly and he didn't have anyone to tell him that he should probably stop trying.