
How Doers Do - kdaigle
http://www.kyledaigle.com/post/43893154087/how-doers-do
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larrys
I don't know Tom Preston-Werner etc. so this comment is based upon the OP's
post and the twitter feed and what I have just read.

Judging by the timing of the tweets it seems that TPW got into a manic episode
and fixed a problem. While we have all done things like this from time to time
I don't see it as an example of "how doers do".

"Doers" should be firing on all cylinders all the time taking on things that
can't be fixed in a binge. And if they can be fixed in a hour or two it
shouldn't take a manic episode to get the energy to fix them.

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hkon
While I agree with your point, I do feel the need to point out that "finally
doing some house cleaning" is not a manic episode. A manic episode is
something that last a week and usually includes refactorings of more grandeur
proportions

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larrys
Correct - wrong use of "manic" to make my point.

For anyone interested:

<http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/what-is-a-manic-episode/>

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arocks
It is amazing how today's technology favours the doers who inspires us with
their actions. Almost anyone in the world can see and learn from their
actions, thanks to technology.

Decades ago leadership meant using powerful and inspiring words to _move_
people into action. This led us to believe that people who could "communicate"
well were natural leaders. Personally, I prefer "doers" to "talkers" as an
inspirational model.

~~~
orangethirty
Good leaders have always been doers. That's how they became leaders. Leading
has never been about being good at speeches. It's about doing the work and
making sure the work is done right.

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lnanek2
> go out there and do something worthwhile and stop regaling your heroes for
> their ability to shut up and ship.

Reminds me of a Buddhist saying that if you meet the Buddha on the road, you
should kill him. Kill being used in the sense of remain detached, not
physically kill.

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jonsterling
I like how he summarizes the post he links to as “go out there and do
something worthwhile and stop regaling your heroes for their ability to shut
up and ship”, and then totally fails to take the point to heart, by writing a
gushing piece about TPW and his “ability to shut up and ship”. Obnoxious.

~~~
kdaigle
Not ashamed to say I'm still working towards that ideal. My project is a start
for me. It was too good of an example of doing that I couldn't point it out.
It could have been anyone in my feed.

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agwa
It's good to have this kind of drive, but writing replacements for existing
tools/libraries because they're flawed, while fun, can be an incredible
distraction from the end goal of shipping your product. I know this from
experience. It's a balancing act: sometimes it's worth it, but often you'll
spend more time writing the replacement than you'd spend using the bad tool.

Tom Preston-Werner is also incredibly lucky that he can write a spec and
overnight a half-dozen implementations crop up. I wish that worked for me!

~~~
larrys
"but writing replacements for existing tools/libraries because they're flawed,
while fun, can be an incredible distraction"

I think that's an excellent point and more or less goes along with my comment
on this. I think what TPW was doing was actually trying to get out of the rut
of completing the real work by trying to have some success and pleasure which
would spur him on to finishing what he needed to do (as evidenced by the
tweets) (reminds me a little of not getting into real work but spending time
"organizing" first under you get the energy up to tackle the real task).
Sometimes simply writing shell scripts gets me in the mood to do the "real
work" that I have to do (programming or non programming).

Once again, nothing wrong with this approach I just don't think it's an
example as stated of a "doer" which is not the same as saying that the
behavior doesn't have any value.

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throwaway1979
No really ... how do doers do? I got married recently and have a full time job
on weekdays. It has been an immense challenge to find time to work on personal
projects now that I am no longer single. I've known some weight lifters who
wake up early or go to bed very late in order to get in their workouts (I've
had some success with this but have gotten overwhelmed after a few days). Any
HNers have tips on how to live the hacker life while maintaining marital
bliss?

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dyselon
Just work with her to find time to do what you want. If you lay out some
things that are important to you, ask her to give up some weeknights (or
whatever it takes for you) with you in the code cave to help you get there,
and are prepared to sacrifice the occasional inspired time when stuff that's
super important to her comes up, you'll be fine. I mean, she's your wife. She
wants to see you accomplish stuff that's important to you, right? Make her a
partner in doing that. Like lots of stuff in marriage, its about communication
and compromise. Congratulations on the marriage, by the way!

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jodi
This seems like he's really just diverting to a more fun project as a way to
procrastinate and still feel productive. His Jekyll project will still have
those pull requests and issues to weed through at the end of the day :)

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lazydon


