Top
Best
New

Posted by prakhar897 1/27/2026

Doing the thing is doing the thing(www.softwaredesign.ing)
585 points | 187 commentspage 4
matchagaucho 1/28/2026||
"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four sharpening the axe."

I still believe there's a mise en place step before doing the thing, when quality counts.

Nevermark 1/28/2026|
If some task has a known step-by-step pattern, then doing it step by step makes perfect sense. That is doing the thing. Taking the known shortest/best path.

Doing the thing is going to involve both direct steps, and indirect steps necessary to do the direct steps.

Not doing the thing involves doing things other than the shortest/safest/effective path to getting the thing done.

cortesoft 1/28/2026||
Sure, but a lot of the things on the list marked as “not doing the thing” are actually important early steps to doing the thing.
hrtk 1/28/2026||
Could’ve ended with “I should get back to doing the thing”
s3micolon0 1/28/2026||
This is a useful methodology and article nudges the reader towards doing things and "taking action". I am sure it will appeal to a huge number of people and indeed, rightly it has climbed to the top of HN, else I would have completely missed it.

I have found these articles on the exact same topic to be creating more actionable mindset.

1. The cult of done by No Boilderplate: https://youtu.be/bJQj1uKtnus?si=efV5OTF35LcDjuN3. Through the years, I have come back to this video many a times and even have the Cult of Done manifesto (snipped from this video) stuck on to my wall.

2. High agency by George Mack: https://www.highagency.com/. This is a long form article and sitting and just reading it has helped me unblock myself. I have a bookmark of this on my favourites bar at all times.

taikahessu 1/28/2026||
Reading or adding comments is not doing the thing.
OpenDrapery 1/27/2026||
Is telling AI to do thing, doing the thing?
olliepro 1/27/2026||
The more I use AI to do the thing, the more it feels like I didn't do the thing.
flyinglizard 1/28/2026||
Yet the thing got done. Perhaps in the age of AI, it’s about making things get done.
keithluu 1/28/2026|||
When saying 'doing the thing', we often mean getting some progress or a result. I'd say you did the thing if you consider the result created by the AI acceptable.
tony_cannistra 1/27/2026|||
Idk, depends. Is going to office-hours in order to pass an exam "doing the thing?" Help seems fine.
doodpants 1/28/2026||
Similarly, is ordering Zhu Li to "Do the thing!" doing the thing?
sghiassy 1/27/2026||
Is planning, like deciding how to position your troops in battle, doing the thing?
munificent 1/27/2026|
Planning is doing the planning thing, but it is not doing the battle thing.
dakiol 1/27/2026|||
And running the marathon is just running the marathon? I disagree. Big part of running the marathon is in the preparation. Weeks after weeks of training and not skipping a single session. The marathon itself is the tip of the iceberg; important but not the whole "thing".
recursive 1/27/2026|||
There are some things that you just can't do without preparation. But never mistake the preparation for doing the thing. You can be "getting in shape for a marathon" forever without ever running a marathon.
olliepro 1/27/2026||||
It depends on your thing. If the marathon was just the motivation, your thing is running... if the marathon was the bucketlist item, it is the thing.
asukachikaru 1/27/2026|||
No matter how much preparation and training one does, if they haven’t run the marathon, they haven’t run the marathon.
cortesoft 1/28/2026||
Right, but conversely you can’t run the marathon unless you train. You can’t skip straight to doing the thing.
TuringTest 1/27/2026|||
But both are doing the winning thing, which is more valuable than just the battle thing. Unless you do it just for fun and don't mind the result.
munificent 1/27/2026||
I don't know anything about planning and battle.

But as a metaphor for other creative pursuits, my experience is that most of the time when people are "planning" or working on other things that they like to believe will help them do the thing... they are really just avoiding doing the thing.

People spend years doing "world-building" and writing character backgrounds and never write the damn book. Aspiring musicians spend thousands collecting instruments and never make a song.

As you say, if it's just for fun, that's all fine. But if the satisfaction you want comes from the result of the thing, you have to do the thing.

neko_ranger 1/27/2026||
"Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights!"
CuriouslyC 1/27/2026|
"Ain't nuttin but a peanut"
LTL_FTC 1/28/2026|
I don’t get it? Are they sharing a quote they liked or taking credit for it? Maybe they just saw the YouTube video and decided to turn it into the page?

Edit: Seems like a way to show they’re looking for roles, I guess.

More comments...