
Finish the Job - charlieirish
http://birchtree.me/main/finishing-the-job-because-nobody-cares-what-youre-going-to-do
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charlieirish
My experience is that you need to be able to ship iterations very quickly. You
need to have a big blue button that says 'ship' on it. If you can release
often, then the last 10% actually looks like 10 little 1% jobs.

Completing a 1% job 10 times is much easier than completing 1 10% job.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Totally agree - ship what you have now, and then add the polish. Seriously if
people care what your content is about they will live with lack of polish.

There is however an Internet sixth sense - that says "dodgy". A two page site
with a email collection form mailchimp is waaaay more forgiveable than
something that reeks of pump and dump

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charlieirish
Absolutely. I believe these two groups of people are mutually exclusive: 1)
Producers of 'Pump and Dump' sites and 2) People who struggle with the last
x%.

Group 1 always produce low quality junk that triggers our 'dodgy' alarms.
Group 2 always worry about producing something that is polished and finished.

The secret is to be in Group 2 but to have someone next to you shouting "Ship
It!" as regularly as possible.

~~~
hmbg
Some 37 signals outlet had a nice discussion on this. The key in their view
was to limit the number of features rather than the quality of said features.
Something about thinking of the features you want on a 2D map, and the
thickness being the quality, building up your volume of work. To reduce volume
you can break off pieces, but you should strive for even (and sufficient)
thickness.

Too thin - pump & dump. To big volume - group 2. Small, but thick - good shit.

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bromagosa
Relevant quote by Tom Cargill, and one of my favourites:

«The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the
development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other
90 percent of the development time»

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ohwp
My personal experience is that the last 10% are hard when:

    
    
      - I didn't stick to the specs
      - Added specs while coding
      - Didn't test while coding
      - Didn't fix shitty while coding
    

Because I think specs are very important I don't believe in too much of agile.
I think the waterfall model is very useful but you have to keep the waterfalls
very small. Maybe you can call this the agile waterfall model: waterfall ->
release -> waterfall -> release

Related: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule>

~~~
mseebach
Agile basically is very small waterfalls. Of course you need to think up front
about what you need to do before you do it. The fallacy of the waterfall model
is the idea that you can accurately predict the full structure of the system
before you write the first line of code.

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thebear
I feel much the same way about finishing and releasing. What I find
interesting is that once I put something out there, opinions will vary wildly
on the question whether it's way overdone and should have been released much
earlier, or whether it's nowhere near ready to be released. I'm beginning to
think that there is no such thing as the "right time" to release. What matters
is that _I_ have a clear vision of what _I_ think is a great achievement
that's not overdone. That vision gives me a finish line and provides me with a
work rhythm. That "last 10%" that charlieirsh describes is part of that
rhythm.

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lbraasch
The last 10% has little to do with the number of remaining items, and all to
do with the type of tasks and mental blocks. Project fatigue sets in.

Within the last 10% are small details pushed aside as the pace was chugging
along for the other 90%. Seemingly trivial problems are hidden until the end,
during which, developers/engineers are most eager to move on to the next
mentally stimulating new project.

I think there is a reason why in schooling, 'A' level work requires a
completion of that last 10%.

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digitalengineer
He's 90% dona and _then_ he'll show it to the world? Ehm, what if the world
doesn't like it? Aren't we pass this? We do pre-launch, research and try to
spread the concept and acquire interest and real-world feedback before we go
'all-in' right?

~~~
thebear
The way I understood the original submission was that "100%" indicates the
point where the thing is ready to be released to the world at large. Before
that, one may well do iterations involving users and potential customers. That
will of course make the actual release, or launch, less of a traumatic event.
And yet, perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but to me, release is still an important
milestone, sort of a finish line, or a goal I'm working towards. That "first
90% vs. last 10%" really resonates with me.

~~~
digitalengineer
It's because he doesn't show or tell the reader what he's working on. He only
talks about "my next website" and "this project". I figured if he had shown it
to the world he wouldn't mind linking to it in this post at the very least...
But of course I could be completely wrong. I just can't tell by this blog
post.

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zalew
as they say: if you finished 90% of the project, you are halfway done.

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DanWaterworth
Does it follow that if you are 99% of the way through, ie you've done 90% of
the last 10%, you are 75% done?

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lloeki
Almost: the first 90% of the project takes about 90% of the total time, while
the last 10% usually take the _other_ 90% of the total time.

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infoman
I am at 90% right now and it is painful! Need to finish and release
<http://get.infyouse.com>

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gala8y
I just hope your domain name does not drag your project down. Del.icio.us is
as piece of cake, compared (compared with del.icio.us because I had to chunk
it in a similar way). If I were you, I would really look for another name,
ASAP.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
What does it mean - I cannot translate the "mashup" from German - but I get
the idea you are a personal wishlist site.

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thoughtcriminal
When someone brags about something they _intend to do_ , it comes off as lazy
and more than a bit self-congratulatory (without actually earning it).

I guess some do it as a way of gaining attention and free advertising.

