[HN Gopher] Doing the thing is doing the thing
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Doing the thing is doing the thing
Author : prakhar897
Score : 145 points
Date : 2026-01-27 06:17 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.softwaredesign.ing)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.softwaredesign.ing)
| dondraper36 wrote:
| As a person with ADHD, I feel personally attacked.
| llbbdd wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| llbbdd wrote:
| I'm going to consider this with the same weight I would if
| my future grey-bearded self popped out of a portal to say
| it, thank you. I've had a sticky note on my monitor for a
| few years that just says "SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP";
| it might be time for that to go before it becomes much more
| depressing.
| zahlman wrote:
| 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.
| dylan604 wrote:
| 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.
| zahlman wrote:
| I'm talking about having completely different, unstarted,
| overall projects in mind.
| dylan604 wrote:
| that sounds like paralysis by analysis. just pick a
| project and go.
| drivers99 wrote:
| What about doing the thing intently for a week and then
| realizing later you haven't touched the project in 6 months?
| dijksterhuis wrote:
| sometimes i find that being okay with not doing the thing is
| exactly the thing i need to do to be okay with getting around
| to doing the thing
| myst wrote:
| Coming up with excuses is not doing the thing.
| arscan wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| The discussion is going to be so similar, this really ought to
| be marked as a [dupe].
| HPsquared wrote:
| On the other hand.. planning, preparation and mise-en-place can
| help with doing the thing.
| ninju wrote:
| But only if you end up doing the thing (and avoid analysis
| paralysis)
| thunfischtoast wrote:
| I think the point is people mistaking planning, preparation,
| talking about the thing... for doing the thing.
| TheAlchemist wrote:
| "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.
| gonzalohm wrote:
| Except you do this in a corporate setting and they will stop
| you the second it works. And then you are stuck maintaining a
| barely working version forever.
|
| I learned this the bad way, but now I just lie and say it
| doesn't work until it's good enough for me
| olliepro wrote:
| Everyone's threshold is different. I aspire to "move fast and
| break things", but more often than not, I obsess over the
| rough edges.
| dbvn wrote:
| ^^^ THIS ... If what you're building is useful, showing
| someone a prototype too early can cause the whole company to
| rush you to deploy.
| replooda wrote:
| "When in doubt, use brute force."
| black_puppydog wrote:
| "Everything worth doing is worth doing badly."
|
| Got me through many a rough spot.
| neko_ranger wrote:
| "Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no
| heavy ass weights!"
| CuriouslyC wrote:
| "Ain't nuttin but a peanut"
| augusteo wrote:
| I used to think this. Then I noticed how often "preparation"
| became its own infinite loop.
|
| At work we built something from a 2-page spec in 4 months. The
| competing team spent 8 months on architecture docs before writing
| code. We shipped. They pivoted three times and eventually
| disbanded.
|
| Planning has diminishing returns. The first 20% of planning
| catches 80% of the problems. Everything after that is usually
| anxiety dressed up as rigor.
|
| The article's right about one thing: doing it badly still counts.
| Most of what I know came from shipping something embarrassing,
| then fixing it.
| jstanley wrote:
| I think you may have slightly misunderstood the article.
|
| "Preparation" isn't mentioned explicitly, but by my reading it
| would come firmly under "is not doing the thing".
| olliepro wrote:
| Getting everyone to fall in love with the thing is not doing
| the thing... learned this as a data scientist brought in to
| work on a project which ended soon thereafter. A team of 20
| people spent 1.5 years getting people to love an idea which
| never materialized. Time was wasted because the technical
| limitations and issues came too late... it died as a 40 page
| postmortem that will never see daylight.
| dakiol wrote:
| Is it always like that? I worked in teams where we had some
| planning beforehand (months, like in your example). We shipped
| just fine and the product started to bring money. I guess it
| depends, as usual.
| sghiassy wrote:
| That's not a zero-sum game.
|
| Pivoting to zero-planning, would also have a basket of flaws.
| MrGilbert wrote:
| "Failing while doing the thing is doing the thing."
|
| I needed this today. Currently questioning my career choices, as
| I hit my first wall where people are involved. Gave me quite the
| headache.
| dakiol wrote:
| I kinda agree, but I also gain pleasure from doing all those
| things that are not supposed to be "the thing". The thinking, the
| dreaming, the visualizing... I just like that. I do it a lot when
| working on personal projects (which some of them I never ship). I
| think it's fine, and I wouldn't go as far as saying that those
| things are "not doing the thing"; in many ways those things are
| "the thing", at least for me.
| munificent wrote:
| That's OK. It's totally fine to not doing the thing. Find joy
| however you want.
|
| But it's not good to lie to yourself about doing the thing
| while not doing the thing. If your joy comes from the result of
| doing the thing, but you're putting time into other things that
| aren't doing the thing, that joy is not getting any closer.
| robofanatic wrote:
| Ironically people who fall in not doing the thing category of
| this article are valued more than those who do the thing.
| TuringTest wrote:
| Sometimes that's because they're making it worthwhile, by
| connecting the thing with those who will benefit from it and
| explaining how to use it, which is as valuable as doing the
| thing.
|
| I.e. by making sure that they're doing the _right thing_.
| amarant wrote:
| Selling the thing isn't doing the thing, but it pays more!
|
| Life is tough like that
| sghiassy wrote:
| Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle,
| doing the thing?
| munificent wrote:
| Planning is doing the planning thing, but it is not doing the
| battle thing.
| dakiol wrote:
| And running the marathon is just running the marathon? I
| disagree. Big part of running the marathon is in the
| preparation. Weeks after weeks of training and not skipping a
| single session. The marathon itself is the tip of the
| iceberg; important but not the whole "thing".
| olliepro wrote:
| It depends on your thing. If the marathon was just the
| motivation, your thing is running... if the marathon was
| the bucketlist item, it is the thing.
| recursive wrote:
| There are some things that you just can't do without
| preparation. But never mistake the preparation for doing
| the thing. You can be "getting in shape for a marathon"
| forever without ever running a marathon.
| TuringTest wrote:
| But both are doing the winning thing, which is more valuable
| than just the battle thing. Unless you do it just for fun and
| don't mind the result.
| munificent wrote:
| I don't know anything about planning and battle.
|
| But as a metaphor for other creative pursuits, my
| experience is that most of the time when people are
| "planning" or working on other things that they like to
| believe will help them do the thing... they are really just
| avoiding doing the thing.
|
| People spend _years_ doing "world-building" and writing
| character backgrounds and never write the damn book.
| Aspiring musicians spend thousands collecting instruments
| and never make a song.
|
| As you say, if it's just for fun, that's all fine. But if
| the satisfaction you want comes from the _result_ of the
| thing, you have to do the thing.
| OpenDrapery wrote:
| Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?
| olliepro wrote:
| The more I use AI to do the thing, the more it feels like I
| didn't do the thing.
| poolnoodle wrote:
| Am I crazy or have I read this or a very similar post before?
| smingo wrote:
| https://www.anquotes.com/charles-bukowski-quotes/ has some
| similar themes.
|
| "Writing about writer's block is better than not writing at
| all."
| mbsa7 wrote:
| I thought the same thing. From a few months ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45939431
| thunfischtoast wrote:
| A lot of tech-savvy people (like me) love solving meta-problems.
| Doing the thing that would take 10 minutes? Na man, let me build
| an unnecessary complicated technical solution that in theory
| enables hundreds of people to do the thing much more efficiently
| in just 2 minutes. That takes a month and the thing has not been
| done, ha.
| ericmcer wrote:
| In "Remains of The Day" they call just talking about "the thing"
| an indulgence. Which is really what it is, it feels good, isn't
| hard, and doesn't achieve anything.
|
| The characters in the book are quick to cut non-productive
| discussions short, but it feels like the feel good discussions
| around "the thing" are about as far as many people want to go
| these days.
| soiltype wrote:
| A bit of a meta lesson for me here: Writing a short, pointed,
| opinionated blog post is blogging. If I care about blogging my
| thoughts, I need to just do it, not worry about rigor or depth
| ahead of time
| mojuba wrote:
| > Doing it badly is doing the thing.
|
| No it's not. Sometimes (or maybe most of the time) doing it badly
| means maybe it's not your thing.
|
| I used to have a neighbour who liked to play the piano and sing.
| He was doing it consistently badly and he didn't have anyone to
| tell him that he should probably stop trying.
| funkmasterzeb wrote:
| Well you are pretty bad at comments. Hang up the keyboard bud
| ashtonshears wrote:
| Maybe people did tell him he sucked, but he was having fun
| redmattred wrote:
| People sometimes do things because they enjoy doing them, even
| if they aren't particularly good at them.
| scandox wrote:
| Yeah the dude should have stopped doing what he liked
| tibbar wrote:
| On the other hand: sometimes doing the thing is itself a bad
| idea. One reason I continue to insist on design docs and code
| review is that I'd rather find this out ahead of time rather than
| deal with the damage afterwards.
|
| In the GenAI era, "doing the thing badly without planning" has
| become so easy that some counterweight is needed.
| jgeada wrote:
| At a previous company we used to joke that most of management was
| a "problem admiration society":
|
| They'd love to talk about problems, investigate them from all
| angles, make plans on how to plan to solve the problem, identify
| who caused it or how to blame for it, quantify how much it costs
| us or how much money we could make from solving it, everything
| and anything except actually doing something about it.
|
| It was never about doing the thing.
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