there’s something really fun and rewarding about Doing Things. making things happen, solving strange logistical challenges, marshalling substantial resources to achieve a well defined goal. running the ooda loop, finding the tightest bottleneck, making calls, leafing through contacts to find the right people, and rolling up my sleeves to get my hands dirty when nothing else works. solving from first principles to find crazy solutions to unusual problems. pulling insane hours. when you move with purpose, people tend to clear out a path for you, surfacing opportunities that unblock you, or smoothing over minor issues that don’t matter.
i feel most alive when i am Doing Things. it feels adventurous and exciting. otherwise, it often feels like i’m sleepwalking through life. Doing Things doesn’t have to be about work—one can also embody this spirit in leisure, usually when i feel like i’m on an adventure with a group of people i like—though for me it’s most often felt doing work that i care about.
research contains small sprints like this, though most of research is being very confused by mysteries, or not having a well defined goal. although Doing Things is compatible with interfacing with bureaucracies occasionally, any job that is too deeply embedded in bureaucracy is bad for Doing Things. any job where you do a constant stream of tasks that are handed to you by someone else is also really bad for Doing Things, even though you spend a lot of time doing object level work.
the joy of Doing Things
there’s something really fun and rewarding about Doing Things. making things happen, solving strange logistical challenges, marshalling substantial resources to achieve a well defined goal. running the ooda loop, finding the tightest bottleneck, making calls, leafing through contacts to find the right people, and rolling up my sleeves to get my hands dirty when nothing else works. solving from first principles to find crazy solutions to unusual problems. pulling insane hours. when you move with purpose, people tend to clear out a path for you, surfacing opportunities that unblock you, or smoothing over minor issues that don’t matter.
i feel most alive when i am Doing Things. it feels adventurous and exciting. otherwise, it often feels like i’m sleepwalking through life. Doing Things doesn’t have to be about work—one can also embody this spirit in leisure, usually when i feel like i’m on an adventure with a group of people i like—though for me it’s most often felt doing work that i care about.
research contains small sprints like this, though most of research is being very confused by mysteries, or not having a well defined goal. although Doing Things is compatible with interfacing with bureaucracies occasionally, any job that is too deeply embedded in bureaucracy is bad for Doing Things. any job where you do a constant stream of tasks that are handed to you by someone else is also really bad for Doing Things, even though you spend a lot of time doing object level work.