The video he posted is particularly germane to HN.
Here we get dozens of posts a day telling us how we should
do things. Mainly, I'm convinced, by people who haven't done
things themselves. Cultivating taste would help a lot of people
here.
But even if they have done things, having done something doesn't
necessarily give you knowledge to pass on to others. Ask any guy
who's reallyreally good with women how he does it. The answer
will probably be "just be yourself" (Unless the answer is "Ferrari".)
Point being, you may not know what you know. Even if you're successful
you may not know what has made you successful. So "just shut up
and do it" isn't horrible advice.
I like to call this the difference between "Ready, Aim, Fire" and "Ready, Fire, Aim".
In the past, I would never "fire" before "aiming". I knew all too well that the cleanup would take longer than the up-front planning would have.
Today, I'm not so sure. Just getting something done provides feedback you didn't have before. That feedback could drastically change your plans.
How do you know when to Aim before Firing or Fire before Aiming? Use your best personal judgment. If Firing before Aiming doesn't get you killed, it's often the better alternative.
Nice, that reminds me of "tracer bullets" - special ammunition that gives off a lot of light so you can see exactly where it's landing and adjust your aim quickly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition
"Just do it"? "Don't bother to analyze things"? Yeah, that really sounds like a recipe for success.
The author even contradicts himself within the article:
Take whatever action you feel needs to be done to grow your business. Do whatever you feel you should do to make your relationship work the best you can.
+
What is the right thing to do is usually difficult to commit to because it doesn’t feel comfortable. It tests your willpower and how much you can trust your own judgment.
So you're supposed to do what feels right... even when it doesn't feel right?
I'm not trying to put down the importance of gut feeling and intuition, but jumping into everything without thinking is not, imho, the way to business success. There is such a thing as too much analysis - and there is such a thing as too little analysis.
I didn't read the article, but the first quote you gave says "feel needs to be done" and the second says "feel comfortable". So, from your excerpts, it appears he's saying something to the effect of "do what needs to be done, even if it feels uncomfortable".
Not that the article is deep or all that well-written, but I get this point.
I often know what "feels right" that I should be doing, but that doesn't mean it's comfortable to do it.
Example: I was not comfortable canceling my conf speaking engagement next week due to illness, but I knew that was what I had to do. Writing that email made me feel bad, and it was hard, but now I feel an immense relief.
This is not just me with this canny "uncomfortable feel-right spidey sense," but all of humanity, as far as I can tell.
The point is that you may not do it well the first time -- but by doing it you will gain experience and know how to improve to make your next go a success. You don't need to be a great (and careful) thinker -- you just need to get expertise at the domain you're doing something in .. and you get that expertise by just doing it!
You're partly right, he's partly right. You're right in that planning carefully and executing properly are important. He's right in that you do not know what to plan for if you do not test the waters.
I think the best approach is to get started, discover how things work, then plan carefully on how to proceed based on what input you get.
Getting started and so forth, as you suggest, is a good idea. But unless I have some way to know whether I am currently planning too much or executing too soon, I don't know whether to follow his advice or not.
If I knew that generally potential entrepreneurs are too timid, than leaping ahead would be great, if trivial, advice. But that's not clear at all. We can't know how many people are merely thinking about starting companies but held back by timidity, because thoughts and planning are largely invisible. There are certainly plenty of companies that get founded by headstrong entrepreneurs that end in ruin.
Maybe I'd find the article useful if the advice were restricted to low-risk startups (and a web startup is a good example of that). For something like a hardware startup, I think "just do it" is close to the worst advice you could receive. (Maybe "don't worry about manufacturing " would be worse.)
Yeah, the problem isn't so much in analysis. It's that you think you've got all the right info for analysis while in reality, without a working prototype -- or something -- you don't have the info.
Without the info, no matter how much you analyze, you still will be behind those who actually got the info -- by launching early and not wasting time on improper analysis for example. Or hacking into a secret database of marketing leads.
Sometimes there is a time for analysis and sometimes there is time to get out there and gather information. A lot of people try to substitute former for the latter because it feels more secure but it doesn't work.
What bothers me about posts like this, and some of the reaction, is that it boils things down to absolutes. While it's true that there are decisions that should be made quickly and on gut instinct, it's also true that there are decisions which require careful thought and planning. Being a good problem solver is about weighing consequences, planning, and taking action accordingly. Sometimes planning takes 5 seconds, sometimes it takes 5 years. It is true that getting real feedback quickly is invaluable. And with software, we can often take the "ready, fire, aim" approach because change is usually cheap and easy.
Or do something (but that is not such a catchy headline).
In most situations it is often better to keep momentum, keep going, than overthink. Take some action, a decision, if it's wrong take another.
Don't get into analysis paralysis.
There are studies showing that you really use your emotions when doing Decision making and people that have head/brain trauma in the frontal brain have harder to make 'any' kind of decision.
Thanks for so many comments guys. Really proves to me how great a community HN really is, especially seeing someone link my post up.
That said, let's get to discussion. The purpose of the post was for my own benefit, but I felt like many people are in the same condition I am, so it was worth telling myself out loud, if you will. I have a tendency to have so many things on my mind that I get bogged down with potential scenarios, both good and bad, and let them overwhelm my actual productivity, and I suspect many people do as well.
Also, the post is assuming a particular level of expertise in your chosen project, profession, or challenge. That said, it still stands true to newbies--maybe even more so. When you are new, experience provides entrenched knowledge which is much better than what you get out of reading an article. Just as well, when you are (finally) an expert, you have a general feel for what is right and what is wrong, and the mistakes you make have lower margins of effect. So yes, it IS important to rule data and details into your decision making, but just like my experience in freelancing, I've found that most people are actually capable of working QUICKLY and at unparalleled QUALITY if they put down their email and just dig in to the work until it's done. What takes most designers in my niche two days takes me 1-3 hours, and it pays off massively for me. Similarly, people are exceptionally capable of digesting data QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY and can make sound decisions in haste. Of course, some should take some more time to weigh, but in general, I think people discredit themselves on their potential rapidity.
What I was hoping to accomplish was that were are all very dynamic and capable of beyond what we think we are, both in quality and in speed, and this is most important in influencing changes with your life, or your project, or your business. Everything changes, and those who are able to get through the decision making process and get to action, through more iterations of decisions, have a tendency to succeed more.
Hopefully that clarifies a few points of confusion. If not, feel free to ask more specifically what you wanted to know. :)
There's also a limit to how much you can learn from reading, or from analysis - some lessons are only learned in doing the work.
Thoreau makes this point in Walden - "To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation! - why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it."
It could also be summed up as "shit or get off the pot."
The same situation arises in every aspect of human existence - there are people who read muscle magazines all day long but never got the the gym, and people who read 100 real estate books and never buy an investment property.
Ira's point is good, but seems tangential. It assumes you've done something, and it's a plea not to quit just because you aren't the best... yet. I swear I've heard it before, in some maxim like "our taste always exceeds our art," but I can't find a source.
I take his point that it's possible to overthink things and never get started. I tend to have that problem in fact. But I've also seen work-work-work types expend way more effort than me on certain kinds of things.
It's all very well to get started an then learn from your mistakes, but:
- sometimes it's not obvious you've made a mistake once you're deep into the details
- once you've invested a lot of time in a solution it's hard to convince yourself to bin it. (this is an especial problem in non-startups, because you have to convince your boss, too)
- sometimes your back-brain just needs enough time to elapse for it to solve/understand the problem/subject. After the amount of work required to get it to pay attention, extra effort on the problem is a waste of time.
Slogans are good but not enough - Just do it. Catch the moment. Today. Less is more, and so on. There is a wisdom in language itself, in slang, proverbs, jargon, folklore, but it is not enough to do business. Practice - the process of creation of an experience is the second side of the coin. And, of course, thousand miles long way begins with first step.
btw, my favourite chinese proverb is "The man without smile shouldn't open a shop."
