"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.

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black_puppydog 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"Everything worth doing is worth doing badly."

Got me through many a rough spot.

	▲	8note 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		it fits well enough into another frame - make it work, then make it pretty, then make it fast if youre worried about doing it well, youre a step or two ahead of where you need to be

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nlawalker 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My two favorite bits of wisdom in this vein:

Dan Harmon's advice on writer's block: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/5b2w4c/dan_h...

>You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you're an asshole. So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team "I will one day write something good" to team "I have no choice but to write a piece of shit" and then take off your "bad writer" hat and replace it with a "petty critic" hat and go to town on that poor hack's draft and that's your second draft.

"The Gap" by Ira Glass: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/c98jpd/the_g...

>Your taste is why your work disappoints you... it is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.*

	▲	llbbdd an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I miss Harmontown dearly. He was always dropping solid-gold wisdom like this in the middle of otherwise borderline-incoherent rants.

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gonzalohm 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

	▲	dbvn 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		^^^ THIS ... If what you're building is useful, showing someone a prototype too early can cause the whole company to rush you to deploy.
	▲	olliepro 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Everyone's threshold is different. I aspire to "move fast and break things", but more often than not, I obsess over the rough edges.

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replooda 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"When in doubt, use brute force."