Doing the thing is doing the thing

(softwaredesign.ing)

50 points | by prakhar897 14 hours ago ago

12 comments

  • TheAlchemist 8 minutes ago

    "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.

  • HPsquared 38 minutes ago

    On the other hand.. planning, preparation and mise-en-place can help with doing the thing.

  • arscan an hour ago

    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

    • crazygringo 4 minutes ago

      The discussion is going to be so similar, this really ought to be marked as a [dupe].

  • dondraper36 an hour ago

    As a person with ADHD, I feel personally attacked.

    • zahlman 21 minutes ago

      I guess you understand this and are making a joke, but that "attack" would appear to be intentional (and motivating).

      I find that I don't have major issues doing a thing once I get started on it. The main problem is choosing from among many things that I could reasonably consider "the thing", and then feeling confident enough in that choice to start.

      • drivers99 8 minutes ago

        What about doing the thing intently for a week and then realizing later you haven't touched the project in 6 months?

      • dylan604 18 minutes ago

        This sounds not too dissimilar to the release the POC to prod mentality.

        There are times where you obviously need to do the thing to understand the thing to see the process of doing the thing. This allows for breaking the process down into better steps. Just writing code to do things you think is doing thing but prove not to do the thing when actually doing the thing is common.

    • llbbdd an hour ago

      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.

      • code_biologist 11 minutes ago

        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.

  • neko_ranger 4 minutes ago

    "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights!"

  • PrettiGoodDead 6 minutes ago

    That's what she said.