If you have no idea how to do the thing, isn't reading about how others did the thing doing the thing?

This hints at the antithesis to this article

Doing a thing involves doing it, but it's very unlikely that doing a thing will involve exactly one atomic movement. So you have cutpoints at doing the thing.

So to do the thing you first have to decide to do the thing. You have to decide what the thing is, or at least have enough of a vision of the thing to take the first step at doing a thing that might look like the thing.

So "doing the thing" involves a lot of doing things that aren't the thing, but without which you won't get towards the thing.

In other words: sitting down and writing down what the thing is _can very well_ be part of doing the thing.

There's a sort of philosophical point too, about whether the thing is what you think it is. Plenty of people have had the "I thought this feature was going to do X, you thought it was going to do Y, and we all realised the mismatch very late in the process".

I think both visions of the world are valid, and things you can keep in your mind at the same time to deploy as needed.

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ahazred8ta 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be entreated not to hit the nail at all." -- Nietzsche

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epolanski 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Or you could try and learn by experience. Software is an example, but so could be drawing or composing music. All of those things have been taken to extreme highs by people who had no idea what they were doing.

Naivety has its perks.

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manmal 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No, you’ll still need to do it.

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nrhrjrjrjtntbt 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes just do it without knowing how to do it! That always works out well.

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Jweb_Guru 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In software, where the consequences for initial failure are extremely minimal, sometimes it does actually work well.

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jader201 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

But learning about, while possibly a prerequisite, still isn’t getting it done.

The point is: don’t stop at learning how to do the thing.

Actually do the thing.

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nrhrjrjrjtntbt 9 hours ago | parent [-]

So skip medical school and grab a scalpel and cut out brain tumours?

	▲	jader201 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t believe I ever said “don’t learn how to do the thing”. But many learn how to do the thing, and still never do it.

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shawn-butler 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Then it isn't a thing you can do.

	▲	forgetfulness 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Becoming someone who can do the thing is how you get to do a lot of things Not what your boss and your bosses’ boss wants you to do, instead of doing other things you can do to maximize value for shareholders in some arbitrarily chosen amount of time But thinking of how you wouldn’t have permission to get ready to do the thing in a business context, also, isn’t doing the thing