| ▲ | jstummbillig 9 hours ago | |
Certainly, but don't get confused: You are not doing the thing, until you do the thing. There are many ways to do the thing. There are many more ways to not do the thing. | ||
| ▲ | saulpw 8 hours ago | parent | next [-] | |
That's right, you're not producing paperclips unless one minute you have metal wire and the next minute you have a paperclip. | ||
| ▲ | kspacewalk2 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
Oh you are absolutely doing the thing in this situation, as in you're in the process of doing it, somewhere between 1% and 99% of the way there depending on the context. You haven't done the thing until you actually fully do the thing, it is true. But most of the work could be in this preparatory meta work, and of course it means nothing without the final all important step of doing the thing, but there you have it, doing the thing before having fully done the thing. | ||
| ▲ | taneq 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | |
Au contraire! Almost all the time you spend doing the thing is actually doing the things required before the final completion of the thing. I've taken to calling this "the work before the work" and it's at least 90% of the work. Example: I get asked at the start of a project to provide ModbusTCP comms mapping for a new control panel, so that the client can start integrating it into their SCADA system. It's just a spreadsheet, maybe 100 rows, how hard could it be? They need it right now, why am I telling them it'll take 6 months? Typing the addresses and descriptions into the spreadsheet is 'the work', and it only takes an afternoon, but it can't start until we do the work before the work: - To document the ModbusTCP mapping I need to the PLC program - To finish the PLC program I need the electrical drawings - To finish the electrical drawings, the electrical engineer needs the device list, datasheets for all the devices, and the functional spec - To finish the device list and functional spec, we need to agree with the client exactly what we're building and what it's meant to do None of these things are 'the work' but all of them are 'the work before the work' and usually nobody wants to do, to wait for, or pay for this work. | ||
| ▲ | satisfice 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | |
You can’t know in the moment whether the thing you are doing is doing the thing. In retrospect alone does it become clear. | ||