A manifesto for creative work and personal initiatives.
1. There are three states of being
Not knowing, action and completion. “Action” is the process and effort to move from a state of “not knowing” into a state of “completion”. Once you’ve completed something, you’ve gained knowledge or skill that can make you do it better in the future.
2. Accept that everything is a draft, it helps to get it done
Every little thing is a valid draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it never will be, even after it’s done.
3. There is no editing stage
Don’t get stuck and fixated on perfecting something. If there are things you like to improve on, carry that with you for the next project.
Many things in the world can’t be edited. Examples include:
- a painting
- pottery
- a book or programming language that you released
4. Pretending is similar to knowing what you are doing, so do it
The full sentence:
Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing so just accept that yo know what you’re doing even if you don’t, AND DO IT.
Don’t let imposter syndrome and perfectionism get in the way of doing something. Many experts on the outside also have doubts and fears inside, so just do it.
5. Banish procrastination
If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
You don’t necessarily have to throw it away, but you do have to try something else.
I think this idea is a bit extreme because not all ideas can be done in a week but it’s definitely a forcing function for smaller ideas or steps towards a larger idea.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done
This has workaholic and perfectionism undertones. It’ll be a never ending stream of things to do instead of sometimes just admiring and celebrating the things that you’ve accomplished.
7. Once you’re done you can throw it away
The real measure of progress is your innate, personal improvement, not the output itself.
8. Laugh at perfection, it’s boring and keeps you from being done
This is related to 3. There is no editing stage
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right
Don’t let naysayers get in the way with your creativity and passions. You can’t please everybody.
10. Failure counts as done, so do mistakes
Quote
If you don’t try, you can’t fail.
Failure shows you’ve tried.
And you know what to do next time.
11. Destruction is a variant of done
Re-hash of 10. Failure counts as done, so do mistakes?
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done
You may not have the skillset to get it done, but at least you’ve enabled someone who has to do so. You did your part.
13. Done is the engine of more
Being done is addictive. Being done is the only way to find out what’s next.
Came upon this from No Boilerplate’s video: