Dec 25, 2023·edited Dec 25, 2023Liked by Addy Osmani
Great advice here, great memorable title.
I would add that there is also a problem of chronic starting but never finishing. I was that guy, buying dozens of programming courses, doing a couple of the first lectures and then forgetting about the course. I started yoga, I started learning several languages, everything was short-term, because everything was so interesting.
I hated myself for always starting something new, never delivering.
One book helped me to beat that: Finish, by Jon Acuff. Paradoxically, I never did finish the book, but I did finish my marathon to become a software developer by following the advice from this book.
Great advice here, great memorable title.
I would add that there is also a problem of chronic starting but never finishing. I was that guy, buying dozens of programming courses, doing a couple of the first lectures and then forgetting about the course. I started yoga, I started learning several languages, everything was short-term, because everything was so interesting.
I hated myself for always starting something new, never delivering.
One book helped me to beat that: Finish, by Jon Acuff. Paradoxically, I never did finish the book, but I did finish my marathon to become a software developer by following the advice from this book.
This reminds me of the famous "The Cult of Done Manifest" and the rule "People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right"
The only way of having at shot at making something awesome is starting doing something bad.
The link to the Bre Pettis article on the cult of done, great read tbh : https://medium.com/@bre/the-cult-of-done-manifesto-724ca1c2ff13
Great advice, Addy! It’s so easy to get hung up waiting for the perfect plan or perfect design before starting a coding project.
Better to think through it a bit and start experimenting and learning as you go.
We learn as we build.
Just start ... then build a long-term vision.