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The cult of done

References:

• Manifesto
• Source

Principles

• Doing brings growth and fulfillment, they are one of the things that give life purpose.
• There is no right way of doing things, only by doing can the path open to us.

Takeaways

• Being on a state of action is the goal. Not the results. The things produced are just a byproduct.
• Being on a state of action is something that you do for yourself, not for others.
• The only valuable voices in the crowd are those that have actually done something.

Related (random) thoughts

This just made me think of how I'm obsessing over the future and that everything needs to have a purpose or bring me closer to my goals.

But now I'm thinking that perhaps having the things completed is not the purpose, the purpose is just doing, and learning through doing, even if they are not perfect, or I delete them, or never publish them. I feel weird about restarting HMH so many times now, but I've coded a lot, even if it's the same thing, so I think I have a better understanding of simple concepts and I've learned a lot, having me doing it in separate languages and platforms.

Notes

• Principle one: There are three states of being
  • Not knowing: Initial stage categorized by ignorance, uncertainty and curiosity
  • Action: Taking steps to change state of not knowing. Effort, struggle, practice.
  • Completion: Not knowing transformed into knowledge or skill
    • After completion you get ideas on how to do it better next time

• The only way to absorb knowledge is through doing

• Principle two: Accept that everything is a draft
  • Prototypes get to production
  • Quick sketches become long term plans
• Principle three: There is no editing stage
  • If you make a mistake you keep going or start again
  • When you release something into the world, you loose control over it.
• Principle four: Pretending to know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you're doing, even if you don't and do it
• Principle five: Banish procrastination, if you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
  • This does not mean, forgetting about it, just means moving forward with something else
  • If you are not feeling it, don't try to make a bad idea a good one, try the next one.

Keep moving forward, things that block you from doing are not worth it for you right now.

• Principle six: The point of being done is not to finish, but to get other things done
• Principle seven: Once you're done, you can throw it away.
  • The art isn't the art, the art is the thing that happens inside you when you make it, and the feeling in heart of the beholder.
• Principle eight: Laugh at perfection, it's boring and keeps you from being done.
• Principle nine: People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right
  • Listen to the people building the things you love

  "It is not your business to determine how good your work is. [...]. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time, there is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than others" - Martha Graham

• Dissatisfaction is what keeps us moving forward.

• Principle ten: Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
  • If you don't try, you can't fail.
  • Failure shows you tried, and you know what not to do next time.
• Principle eleven: Destruction is a variant of done.
• Principle twelve: If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done
• Principle thirteen: Done is the engine of more