3.12.2009:
The "Cult of Done" can kiss my ass (and mark it off their list once they have)
12:59 PMI read Getting Things Done by David Allen. I liked it. It helped a lot. I actually get more done now since I read it 4 years ago, and I still use principles like email folders and "If it takes 2 minutes or less, do it right now." The cats certainly like it, since I remember to feed them regularly now.
However.
The appropriately titled "Cult of Done" that has arisen around the concepts presented in that book really, really need to go away and die. Of course, they'd insist that if they can't die RIGHT NOW in front of me, it wouldn't be worth doing, and they should move on to something else. But I don't want that. I don't want to see them, hear them, or deal with their bodies. I want them to achieve two goals:
1) go away.
2) die.
Their little manifesto (linked above) just plain pisses me off, and the reason is simple:
Obsession on action produces nothing useful whatsoever.
Here's my take on their bullshit list:
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
I know some will argue that my states of being are congruent with the above three states of being, but I disagree. I believe that what these folks are stating is that you are ignorant until you are no longer ignorant, and the SECOND you know what it is you are to be doing, you MUST START DOING IT RIGHT AWAY UNTIL YOU ARE COMPLETED *BEEP* NEXT COMMAND?
Fuck that. I cannot tell you how many projects I've obsessed over for weeks, just thinking about a plan of attack, only to start and COMPLETELY RETHINK it midstream. And 99 times out of 100, that complete rethink resulted in something SO much better. And 100 times out of 100, it made the project late on delivery. And 100 times out of 100, the client was VERY happy I was late.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.I'd go the exact opposite way. Start by pretending you're editing the final project. The parts that don't exist, imagine them, then edit them. I get SO MUCH MORE done with an "editing" state of mind than a "creation" state of mind. I just let a story or a comp or a video play out in my head the way it's going to play, without injecting a single ounce of "me" into it. Then I just take whats in front of me and make it look like that.
3. There is no editing stage.See #2. Also, without an editing stage, how the hell can you be sure that your final audience will find the same passion in your project / goal / project you did? How can you go back and clean up what you missed while working? Where's the "clean mind and new eyes" aspect of the creation? ZERO people (except maybe Neil Gaiman) will produce something, come back to it a week later, and tell you they wouldn't change something about it.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.I actually don't mind this point. "Fake it until you make it." It works just fine so long as you're not espousing your opinions on the area of your supposed expertise to people who actually know what they're doing, and as long as you're willing to accept failure as an option (which this list does...) when a client or the final audience looks at what you've done and judges it to be of insufficent quality.
These are not bad things. These are how you learn to do what you do better. I am nowhere NEAR an expert in design or writing, and I'm still doing these things. And I take every criticism and use it to hone my skills. Even though I still have a very long way to go, I can look back on my old works and know that I've at least advanced from that point (which is why I hate point #7).
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.Probably my biggest issue with this stupid list. I agree that procrastination can be damaging... But if I abandoned every project I waited more than a week to do, I'd have never written any books, designed any websites, started any workout programs - in short, I wouldn't have to go to the gym EVER because I'd starve from not ever producing a single peice of work in my life.
For many people I know, procrastination is actually part of the workflow. It's the brain going off an focusing on other shit, while the subconscious ruminates over what the work is going to end up being. It's actual productive work that, to middle-managing button-down dickheads the world over, looks like goofing off. They see creative procrastination the same way they see the time they spend wearing Crocs while sitting on their front porch sipping some drink with more than two words in the name, talking to their best-friend-the-sales-guy about that awesome frat party they went to when they were 20.
Not the same.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.You're so right! Everything else is meaningless - a sense of completion, joy in the finish product, pride in your work... FUCK. THAT. Just go to the next thing. Be a machine. I believe They Might Be Giants have a song that'd be a perfect soundtrack for the lives of these ridiculous people.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.Applies to the wrappers of cheeseburgers, and not much else. Different people have different methods of moving on to the next thing, but I keep copies of the stuff I do, if for no other reason than to reference it later to see if I've gotten any better since I did [project x]. How can you grow without metrics?
That'll get you far. Never be the best, it's fruitless because it gets in the way of trudging through your task list.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.Two words: Nickolaus Pacione. I wouldn't ever listen to a fucking word that guy said about anything regarding literature, writing, horror, building model trains, cooking an Eggo waffle or anything else. He's a hack. And he's produced three times the amount of material I have.
Doing something does NOT make you right. It just makes you experienced. And experience is a good thing - but it takes much more than accumulated experience to be good at stuff.
You don't get to design the DVD cover for The Dark Knight because you drew one in Photoshop and posted it to DeviantArt. Of course, this is not a fruitless exercise. It's great work to do, fun, exciting, and IF IT IS GOOD ENOUGH and lands in the right hands, who knows - it COULD lead to you doing work on a large budget movie. I guarantee you the guy who did the fanfic poster for the new Batman movie featuring a mocked-up Riddler is working professionally on something right now.
But that's not because he Does Something, it's because he Does Something WELL. And that takes tons of Doing Something, yes... But inbetween the moments of DOING, you have to be thinking and plotting and learning and focusing and letting your mind wander and relaxing and NOT DOING ANYTHING.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.I don't have anything to say about this, except that I've never once counted as "Done" something that sucked, because either a) the client / final audience / whoever rejected it, so what's the point of claiming credit, or b) I threw the damn thing out and started over.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.Huh? Are we even speaking the same language anymore? Cultists are stupid.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.... Sure ok whatever. I think I'm "Done" responding to this shit. It's clear they just wanted more bullet points in this list. Maybe their criteria of "Done" was "thirteen bullet points" and they just started making shit up that sounded somewhat interesting. Perhaps they should have paid more attention to number 10 and stopped there.
13. Done is the engine of more.Action breeds action, yes. It's an old axiom, and it's true. But I think that this point needs to be qualified a LOT - it's referring to THEIR definition of "Done," not "Truly Done." And they are exactly right - going through the motions to get something marked off a list will simply lead you to doing it over and over until your stupid list is empty, and you can fill it with more meaningless tasks you'll go through the motions to finish. Yay you, you've just become marginal.
******
I've seen it my entire career, both in offices and while self-employed. People confuse "doing something" with "doing something meaningful" constantly. I've seen multi-million dollar projects spin and spin and spin with no actual progress made for MONTHS, all the while people were "Getting Things Done." Action items were crossed off hit-lists and developers billed actionable hours, managers reported those actionable hours to their bosses, their bosses told clients Things were Getting Done, and all the while, NOTHING FUCKING WORKED.
If all I did was Get Things Done, there'd be stories on my site alright. There'd be tons and tons of them. And not a one of them would be worth reading (not that they are anyway, but that's another blog post about my frail ego that I'll do another day). They'd be sterile and boring. There'd be NO imagination in telling events, no plays on words, no NOTHING. Just a checkmark on the to-do list.
Let's just say that I doubt very highly that the inventors of the microwave, the television remote control or the automobile gave a rat's ass about being prompt, and cared more about making the damn thing right.
SO, Cult of Done-ers, please go away. And die. And make it snappy - dying is the engine of getting the fuck out of the way of real progress.
*** Update: I recognize that this MIGHT be parody. But it's not clear at all that it is, and that's the problem. Parody / satire should give themselves away at some point. This doesn't. And the GTD cultists (who are NOT kidding) are loving this, taking it to heart and passing it around like it's the new Bible. This piece COULD have been meant as parody, and if it was, it's very funny... But it's failed in its goal, and only further empowered the ideas it intended to mock. SO IT STILL PISSES ME OFF.
* * *
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29 Comments:
I couldn't agree more, Joe. It seems to me that the Cult of Done should be renamed "The Cult of Half-Ass", because if you follow their rules that's what your going to get. Unless you want to live by the mantra "We do it nice 'cause we do it twice", I'd ignore every piece of advice they have to offer.
The entire thing seems to me like the joy of crossing things off of lists has become more important than the tasks themselves.
Don't get me wrong, crossing things off of lists is great therapy and can help your mind move on, but it's purely symbolic.
Though I was entertained by the manifesto's brazenness, I have to say their philosophy looks like a great way to lose a finger and then lose another one weeks later when it comes to many projects. Thats one way to get it done I suppose.
Just by the brazenness of the whole thing I assumed it was intended as a tongue-in-cheek manifesto. If its for real, it sounds like a great way to lose your finger and then lose it again next week and still not see the big picture; an idea central to David Allen's work IMHO. I loved the artwork for it though, may print it out for my workshop just for the heck of it.
This was illuminating in its approach at addressing this silly idea with practicality in mind-- and generally those sorts of conditions tend to generate resourceful satire. Think about Chris Rock doing his routine on prisons & education. If people are confused at all by this, its more because they lack the ability to distinguish between the irony in the over-thought transposed against practicality and why it was ever practical. And anyone who willingly surrenders their reputation and joins themselves at the philosophical hip with anything referred to as a cult, is bound to respond as would any other sheep -- mindlessly. Don't get discouraged about the misinterpretation-- the right people understood you perfectly.
It's like social media pig slop, really. Talking/writing about things you COULD get done disproportionately to doing them.
You take things you read on the internets WAY too seriously :/
Come on, really? Point 8: Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
That's pure satire. I can't see this as anything else. There are 2 things that completely give this away, the ridiculously simple dismissal of perfection by calling it boring is a deliberately stupid non-argument. And "it keeps you from being done" is obvious in the way that it places done-ness over any other goal. I think this is satire and pretty obvious to boot. If anyone is following this seriously I'm just going to laugh at them.
I mean satire is basically taking an opposing point and exaggerating it in ways that it does not work until the point that it is ridiculous. That's pretty much what's happening here.
jeez, lighten up a bit?
I enjoyed reading both the original and Joe's counterpoint. I cannot say if "Cult of Done" was meant in earnest or not but I have been a hands-on problem solver for twenty years and the approach that has always stood me in good stead is a simple maxim I was fortunate to learn early on. "Don't just do something. Stand there."
Sigh, typically procrastinator rant. You should really put that energy towards accomplishing productive things. ;-)
Great piece, I loved it -- some excellent points expertly delivered with humor. I particularly liked #12's referenced to #10. Thank you!
GTD is only a useful idea for marginal tasks. Not for real work.
He doesn't have to "lighten up", he/she is perfectly fine as they are. One can and should rant at stupid shit on the internet. The pure signal to idiot ratio is getting smaller by the day.
Refute his points, not the meta problems you see. If you think that his post is a waste of time, you never had to even enter the discussion yet you have. If you have interest in his well being due to him "taking it seriously", give him a call or an email.
If we dont have people who can call a spade a spade, who will be left to tell the truth from the lies, surely not anonymous.
I'm not familiar w/ the CoD but this diatribe, while entertaining and probably valid from some stance, comes off as a bit over-simplified and, well, bitter. Your side of the coin is shiny and fun, though. Yay!
^WTF?
I didn't find it bitter in the slightest. If anything you gave dimension to their Borg-like mantra, then translated it into something actually applicable in reality.
Their #1 reminds me of Scientology's "cycle of action". Creepy shitweasels.
I wrote a really cool reply, and blogger dumped it with a snarky and pithy error message.
I guess the programming-by-committee crowd from M$FT has infected Google. I bet they bill in mega-hours and talk all day long about "deliverables."
dude, they aren't talking about work for clients or your job or anything; it's about hobbies and shit. The idea is to just do the projects you have kicking around in your head.
hahaha the Cult of Done was written by a bunch of DiY nerds who a) wrote it about their own projects b) were getting a kick out of writing their own manifesto. chill out!
Dear Joe The Peacock,
Please blow harder.
Thanks,
Wayne The Pain
I don't think you and the cult of done are on the same page when it comes to the semantics involved but still I agree with most of your points.
With regards to #8 on the list however I think, judging by your short response to it, that you have not thought it through. This link might help: http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/taming-perfectionism.html
tl;dr
Sometimes it is better to get something done that works rather than waiting to stumble on the perfect solution. Just not in the robotic cult of done way.
The post would have been better without the sarcasm. You bring up valid points, but I am naturally mad/skeptical that you're trying to be offensive.
I'm not part of the cult of done, btw. Just an observer.
Pretty good stuff dude. Well done!
RT
www.privacy.at.tc
I like the cult of done. It's iterative. It doesn't really limit what you can do when you're done. Planning is doing. When you're done planning you can go on to done something else, right? I like nihilism as well. Things matter and things are complete in the same subjective and relative sense. There's always more to do no matter what you accomplished or paid a painful price of failure for. And that's not the only way to look at your experiences, just one iterative way.
done.
Joe,
Great piece. As you put it, obsession on action produces nothing useful whatsoever.
My "take" goes a little bit further: Obsessive inaction produces nothing whatsoever.
Take a look at the counterpoint to GTD, EffTD (Effing The Dog); and if you'd like to guest post some time, let me know.
Eventually.
It's interesting how Wall Street-style Zen compares to this view Buddhist economics, on the place of labor:
http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/buddhist_economics/english.html
Yep, I'm going to vote for the "bloody hell, just chill out Joe!" theme in these comments. It looks like you've missed the point here.
You certainly are one of these guys who eat the menu card at a restaurant and then complain about its bad taste.
As humorous as your post is, you are not supposed to take the "manifesto" (I admit, not the best title pick) literally. As I see it, this text is very much alike to many zen riddles and verses from the tao te-king.
The "manifesto" is intentionally written vaguely so it serves as a base for reflective thought. The result of contemplation should be understanding.
When you misunderstand the text (which you obviously intended to do), your response turns inevitably into humorous take on the impatient and vociferous. Funny, but misleading to those who do not know how to read such a text.
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