
Just do it - kyro
http://stevenkovar.com/entrepreneurship/just-do-it/
======
swombat
That's a pretty silly point.

"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.

~~~
cglee
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".

------
akamaka
I'd says he's got a fair point overall.

There's so much advice and analysis posted here that one wouldn't get any work
done if one tries to digest all of it.

It's often better to just go and try something, as experience is the best
teacher.

~~~
spitfire
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 _really_ _really_
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.

~~~
mixmax
_"Mainly, I'm convinced, by people who haven't done things themselves_ "

I assure you that some of us have :-)

------
mannicken
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.

------
symptic
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. :)

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tjstankus
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.

------
jonke
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.

------
ajb
It's easy to see other people's mistakes.

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.

------
edw519
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.

~~~
abstractbill
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>

~~~
cdr
Hunt/Thomas use "tracer bullets" as a term for prototyping in The Pragmatic
Programmer. It's not an uncommon analogy.

~~~
abstractbill
Ah, I should have known I had seen it somewhere before, thanks (memory like a
sieve).

------
xsmasher
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.

------
mtkd
This post being first on HN this afternoon has triggered some kind of
recursive irony loop I can't get out of. Turning machine off for rest of day
...

------
xsmasher
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."

------
javert
All he says here is: "Just do what feels right."

Great companies and great software are built by great (and careful) thinkers -
not people who make off-the-cuff decisions based on their emotions.

I think this post gives bad advice.

~~~
markessien
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.

~~~
pingswept
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.)

------
mcantelon
As a venture becomes more successful, the number of stakeholders grows, and
the ability to "just do it" declines.

------
Hexstream
Don't miss the embedded video, "Ira Glass on Storytelling #3".

I'm _so_ in that "taste > skill" phase!

------
hs
edison's invention inspires thousands of academic thesis -- the reverse is not
true.

------
c00p3r
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."

