Difference between revisions of "Just Do It Efficiency"

Latest revision as of 04:09, 2 September 2009

My friend, Mike Gdovin ran a "company" called W3life during high school. It was a perfect learning experience to show what the power of "doing stuff" is and to talk about my drive for it. It's a bunch of random thoughts. This was started in Oct 2008 and finished Sept 2009.

Do Stuff Philosophy

I am strongly a proponent of doing something. Instead of planning, and talking, just do it.

Now perhaps in software that is easy. Building a building requires lots of planning not only to make the building stand up, but to make sure that no workers are standing around doing nothing. Some enterprise software is also all about integration. However, even in big projects, people need to stand up and take the lead, make a decision on something or just push to get stuff done. (I always try to get stuff done as fast as possible, because then it is not sitting around and I can switch to doing whatever is most efficient at the moment.) The moment anything lags, you are losing something. You can not lose the focus on getting stuff done.

Organizational structure is sometimes a necessity - but many times the paperwork gets in the way of doing things. The paperwork should be proportional to the size of the job. Otherwise you will spend too much time doing paperwork and not getting stuff done.

Living the W3life

My friend Mike Gdovin ran a "company" called w3life. Throughout their 3 year lifespan they put out about 10 content pieces, but they changed their logo 3 times and their content style 3 times. You can read the history on the W3life page.

They spent their entire time trying to set up the formal structure of their company with CEOs and board meetings, and arguing about control. They also could not find the stride of picking something and working with it.

It's not the company structure that is important. Having a CEO role, arguing about shares, trying to get the best logo. You must do something.

Pros

Successful professionals in this industry have learned do this. They know how to filter what is important and what is not. There is a discrete way to talk about ownership, but this does not get in the way. They recognize that 60% of 0 is 0. Formal structures are added later, as needed.

Startups

Almost every start up is trying to shed the big corporation bloat and deal with the least structure as possible. Corporations have structure so that they can manage larget sections at once. That means they are very not agile. No one wants to make a decision. Everyone is afraid of rocking the boat and not driven by a vision. Good start ups shake this straight jacket.

With my experience with big business in 2009, I've seen that this type of foot dragging happens in big business. It's really frustrating to me. I particularly dislike foot dragging or anything that is not efficiency. I don't like how people are divisive in order to protect their job or not change.

Efficiency is good

Perhaps, because I see so many possibilities, I do not subscribe to that view. I happen to jump around between stuff and there always seems to be a better opportunity. I don't be stuck supporting stuff. I love learning new things and finding faster ways to get stuff done. The faster I get stuff done, the happier I am. That means I can do more.

Plus if you are always worrying how to do the least bit possible it is simply a big distraction. It's the same with lying. You spend so much energy trying to be different things for different people that you get less done. I find its far better not to worry about and just try the hardest.

I did my homework everyday in high school. Unlike some of my other classmates, I did not copy it from others in the morning. This helped me learn the material and think clearly. I might have also occasionally missed the forest from the trees.

Living and Relaxing

People do need periphery time for "living and relaxing." I find that when I am busy I finish things in a much shorter amount a time. You must find the right balance of time for yourself. You need to schedule it in, enjoy the time you have, and get back to work.

Forcing yourself to do something, even if it is hard. No matter how hard. That's what you have to aspire to.

Working

Young people who are successful always seem to be busy. They are always on their iPhone. That's there their secretary. They are always connected and can work in any portion of the organization. You send them an email and then they send you a terse reply which fixes the problem. They are always on the run, being busy.

How I Would Run My Business

I want people who are not afraid of standing up and rocking the boat to call attention to something. No none works in just departments anymore. Everyone needs to respectfully voice their opinion about everything. Nothing can be written off as "not my job". It's about a life long of learning.

I think the best teams work with a small group of motivated, first class workers who are given the room to work. They need to be willing to talk out about the structure and rock the boat.

Problems: Communication

Probably the biggest problem is communication. Teams that are too big don't share stuff. Wikis are a large part of the solution if people take the time to contribute. They need to be managed well.

Rapid/agile

In some ways, this might be related to the philosophies of rapid or agile programming. In many cases, its faster just to try something. This way you will know all of the issues and might think of things that you would have never guessed.

In programming, you can do a lot of nothing if you spend a lot of time of planning out specs. Now this is needed sometimes. But I think most of the time rapid prototyping or agile programming would get stuff done. Just try it. Again, this works best with small, close-knit teams, who really know what they are doing.