10 ms·

Aim, fire, scan: the 80/20 of executing on big projects

273 points by ChanningAllen 3y ago

veggieburrito 3y ago
Am in between house rentals at the moment and the general concept of “commitment agreements” is one that’s been on my mind. Particularly the desire to pay 6 or X months up front for a place - maybe it exists in the commercial space but haven’t seen it for general residential agreements. Some cool points made in this article thanks for sharing. It’s a bit broad and formulaic to be directly actionable in my opinion but that can be seen as good/bad depending on the reader
john-tells-all 3y ago
Strongly agree. I think a point not explicit in OP's article is having low quality initial Plans in order to move forward. Logically, we want a Plan to move towards our Goal. As Engineers we often suffer from Analysis Paralysis: lots of paths to the goal with no clear winner. We also slow down from Impostor Syndrome: surely a smarter/more talented person knows the one true Plan forward to the goal. > I make a plan, then do the plan, then learn from my efforts by reviewing my progress. I do this every day of the year, going on half a decade now. [At many time scales: three hour cycles going up to three-month cycles.] I believe OP would agree that the Plan should be low quality, at least at the beginning. This encourages forward movement, and learning, vs just planning in circles and without using real-world data. Source: writing a book on Feedback Loops
- ChanningAllen 3y ago
  > I believe OP would agree that the Plan should be low quality, at least at the beginning. OP emphatically agrees. Overplanning is arrogance in a world with so many unknown unknowns.
bbor 3y ago
Wow, this is… this is amazing. I thought my system was genius only I could derive, but here you’ve got a ton of it written down, plus a whole bunch of other ideas that sound great - I love “ABZs” in particular, and the “three Me’s” is great. On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe Out of curiosity, do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy?
- ChanningAllen 3y ago
  > On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe Literally considering writing a book on extended mind theoretic ideas. Highly recommend Andy Clark's "Supersizing the Mind" (2010). > do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy? Both. At first (~10 years ago) it was about managing deficiencies, but before long I was performing far above the average neurotypical knowledge worker.
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  OODA loop?
  - edmundsauto 3y ago
    This mindset is more useful in a competitive environment where you want to cycle new information in a faster loop than your opponent. Thinking about it, I’m not sure it would be that valuable in my typical corporate experience - no outer loops to get inside of. Maybe my managers so I can stay a step ahead?
    - jvanderbot 3y ago
      Observe situation as it is, Orient yourself and resources in this new situation, Decide on next action, Act. The application is identical. TFA just renames it to Aim Fire Scan with an even more conflict-oriented sequence name. The main "get inside the loop" takeaway from OODA is just "Be agile and respond quickly to outcomes" rather than "March forward on your original plan", when applied in a non-competitive environment. Same schtick, different pile.
  - KineticLensman 3y ago
    > OODA loop? Observe, Overreact, Deny, Apologise? [Edit]. Just kidding. OODA is foundational.
    - 3y ago
quickthrower2 3y ago
These goal escrow sites, like stickK, beeminder are not my thing but glad they help people. Here are some other hacks: 1. Set your standards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUck-umj2WI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUck-umj2WI, yes it is him, but it is good.) 2. If plausible, release something shit / half done. You will feel embarrassed and want to fix it up. 3. Just get started. Do a minute. Soon you will be in work mode, and forcing yourself to no to do it, so you can sleep at an appropriate time! 4. Try to do fun stuff if possible. Going to the gym is not fun, but it feels good after. But if you have a side project, make it a fun one, something you really are in to. 5. Habits are very powerful. Your brush your teeth, right?
- chaosharmonic 3y ago
  > 4. Try to do fun stuff if possible. Going to the gym is not fun, but it feels good after. But if you have a side project, make it a fun one, something you really are in to. I'm not entirely with you about gyms in particular. Weights might just not be your thing as an individual, but "going to the gym is not fun" is often about the logistical problems of timing around gyms (peak hours, January rushes especially) and not necessarily that it's an inherently bad experience. If you're going when it's dead, it can actually be pretty great. If you're doing it now, then yeah, it's a bad idea (and there's a separate ramble on that), but it doesn't have to be. Broadly though, I agree with you. You'll never find me on a treadmill, but will find me on a DDR cab.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - metabeard 3y ago
    > DDR cab Dance Dance Revolution?
    - dvno42 3y ago
      Yes. Cab being Cabinet, slang for an arcade setup of Dance Dance Revolution as opposed to the home version. I'm with you GP, DDR/ITG dedicabs have always been a way to get me out of a rut.
koube 3y ago
The links for the bus method, interstitial journaling, and rubber ducking all point to the same link for interstitial journaling. Also, the later "e.g. the BUS method" link points to interstitial journaling as well.
- ChanningAllen 3y ago
  Fixed
etrautmann 3y ago
I like this post and find some of it quite helpful as a framework, but certain pieces are sufficiently vague that I actually have no idea what's being said: "As a rule with few exceptions, you want to move forward through iteration loops, not backward. (Too often, moving backward is a sign of problems with doing, not problems with planning.)" What does that mean? a short example here would help. How do I know if reprioritizing is going backwards or a problem of doing vs. what was advised up above?
- efields 3y ago
  I agree that some of this was kinda weird or just meant for those "in the know," but it was mostly a good piece. I especially appreciate the ABZ idea, because it comports with one of the best pieces of advice I got in college, "Work from the end, to the beginning." What does the finish product look like and how did it get there? It frames your (my) thinking better when I don't have an answer. If I take the learned experience of what I've done (A) what I'm working on already (B), and I know I want to make (Z), that's end-to-beginning thinking.
- Leo_Germond 3y ago
  I guess it means for some "plan do check act" loop, you want to avoid doing a plan, a do, then to plan again (because you have something important to note), then do a bit etc... This kind of back and forth were you subvert the principle by turning the loop into a 2 step pseudo-iteration.
waprin 3y ago
Always great to see indie hackers content. Since Channing mentions interstitial journaling, I want to share my interstitial journaling app called Interstitch at https://Interstitch.app https://Interstitch.app I shared it here on HN and PH and got 2 upvotes and zero people checking it out. But I realized half the problem is most people don’t know what interstitial journaling is. Many people understandly confuse it for a journaling app. But it’s closer to a time tracking app but more for individual performance than invoicing. But I assumed I was the only person who finds this useful, which was ok since I’ve been using it to set “deep work” daily goals and summarize how I spent my week so at least I use it. Then the CEO of Medium somehow sees the HN post and emails me that he coined the term, but I probably heard it from Ness Labs founder that Channing links to. So then I email her and she adds me to her newsletter which has like 100k subscribers and about 100 people are now using it which is cool. Good lesson in reaching the right audience.
- ChanningAllen 3y ago
  Nice app! I've rolled my own custom solution inside of Notion, or else you'd probably have another signup.
zubairq 3y ago
I always think of these loops too. I also liked the quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." —Bruce Lee
DeathArrow 3y ago
Why complicate things? Make a plan, start executing it, review and adjust. There's all there is to it. If you put down hours in a mindful way towards your objective, you will progress, regardless if you want to learn to play piano, discover a revolutionary drug or get rich.
- ChanningAllen 3y ago
  Complex goals often require complex solutions. Keeping it simple is probably a good policy for most people most of the time. But for those who want to break through the plateaus that simple solutions will inevitably lead to, they can look to posts like this one.
- edmundsauto 3y ago
  Part of the depth of the article is what to do if you’re stuck. How do you get out of writers block? Then they offer some concrete techniques that are effective.
computersuck 3y ago
Overcomplicated

273 points by ChanningAllen 3y ago

Am in between house rentals at the moment and the general concept of “commitment agreements” is one that’s been on my mind. Particularly the desire to pay 6 or X months up front for a place - maybe it exists in the commercial space but haven’t seen it for general residential agreements. Some cool points made in this article thanks for sharing. It’s a bit broad and formulaic to be directly actionable in my opinion but that can be seen as good/bad depending on the reader

john-tells-all 3y ago

Strongly agree. I think a point not explicit in OP's article is having low quality initial Plans in order to move forward. Logically, we want a Plan to move towards our Goal. As Engineers we often suffer from Analysis Paralysis: lots of paths to the goal with no clear winner. We also slow down from Impostor Syndrome: surely a smarter/more talented person knows the one true Plan forward to the goal. > I make a plan, then do the plan, then learn from my efforts by reviewing my progress. I do this every day of the year, going on half a decade now. [At many time scales: three hour cycles going up to three-month cycles.] I believe OP would agree that the Plan should be low quality, at least at the beginning. This encourages forward movement, and learning, vs just planning in circles and without using real-world data. Source: writing a book on Feedback Loops

ChanningAllen 3y ago
> I believe OP would agree that the Plan should be low quality, at least at the beginning. OP emphatically agrees. Overplanning is arrogance in a world with so many unknown unknowns.

bbor 3y ago

Wow, this is… this is amazing. I thought my system was genius only I could derive, but here you’ve got a ton of it written down, plus a whole bunch of other ideas that sound great - I love “ABZs” in particular, and the “three Me’s” is great. On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe Out of curiosity, do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy?

ChanningAllen 3y ago
> On that note, read some Extended Mind philosophy if you haven’t, originally from Chalmers I believe Literally considering writing a book on extended mind theoretic ideas. Highly recommend Andy Clark's "Supersizing the Mind" (2010). > do you think this is self-treatment for attention deficiencies, or just an effective set of strategies? In other words, is this a life strategy or a work strategy? Both. At first (~10 years ago) it was about managing deficiencies, but before long I was performing far above the average neurotypical knowledge worker.
jvanderbot 3y ago
OODA loop?
- edmundsauto 3y ago
  This mindset is more useful in a competitive environment where you want to cycle new information in a faster loop than your opponent. Thinking about it, I’m not sure it would be that valuable in my typical corporate experience - no outer loops to get inside of. Maybe my managers so I can stay a step ahead?
  - jvanderbot 3y ago
    Observe situation as it is, Orient yourself and resources in this new situation, Decide on next action, Act. The application is identical. TFA just renames it to Aim Fire Scan with an even more conflict-oriented sequence name. The main "get inside the loop" takeaway from OODA is just "Be agile and respond quickly to outcomes" rather than "March forward on your original plan", when applied in a non-competitive environment. Same schtick, different pile.
- KineticLensman 3y ago
  > OODA loop? Observe, Overreact, Deny, Apologise? [Edit]. Just kidding. OODA is foundational.
  - 3y ago

quickthrower2 3y ago

These goal escrow sites, like stickK, beeminder are not my thing but glad they help people. Here are some other hacks: 1. Set your standards (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUck-umj2WI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUck-umj2WI, yes it is him, but it is good.) 2. If plausible, release something shit / half done. You will feel embarrassed and want to fix it up. 3. Just get started. Do a minute. Soon you will be in work mode, and forcing yourself to no to do it, so you can sleep at an appropriate time! 4. Try to do fun stuff if possible. Going to the gym is not fun, but it feels good after. But if you have a side project, make it a fun one, something you really are in to. 5. Habits are very powerful. Your brush your teeth, right?

chaosharmonic 3y ago
> 4. Try to do fun stuff if possible. Going to the gym is not fun, but it feels good after. But if you have a side project, make it a fun one, something you really are in to. I'm not entirely with you about gyms in particular. Weights might just not be your thing as an individual, but "going to the gym is not fun" is often about the logistical problems of timing around gyms (peak hours, January rushes especially) and not necessarily that it's an inherently bad experience. If you're going when it's dead, it can actually be pretty great. If you're doing it now, then yeah, it's a bad idea (and there's a separate ramble on that), but it doesn't have to be. Broadly though, I agree with you. You'll never find me on a treadmill, but will find me on a DDR cab.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- metabeard 3y ago
  > DDR cab Dance Dance Revolution?
  - dvno42 3y ago
    Yes. Cab being Cabinet, slang for an arcade setup of Dance Dance Revolution as opposed to the home version. I'm with you GP, DDR/ITG dedicabs have always been a way to get me out of a rut.

koube 3y ago

The links for the bus method, interstitial journaling, and rubber ducking all point to the same link for interstitial journaling. Also, the later "e.g. the BUS method" link points to interstitial journaling as well.

ChanningAllen 3y ago
Fixed

etrautmann 3y ago

I like this post and find some of it quite helpful as a framework, but certain pieces are sufficiently vague that I actually have no idea what's being said: "As a rule with few exceptions, you want to move forward through iteration loops, not backward. (Too often, moving backward is a sign of problems with doing, not problems with planning.)" What does that mean? a short example here would help. How do I know if reprioritizing is going backwards or a problem of doing vs. what was advised up above?

efields 3y ago
I agree that some of this was kinda weird or just meant for those "in the know," but it was mostly a good piece. I especially appreciate the ABZ idea, because it comports with one of the best pieces of advice I got in college, "Work from the end, to the beginning." What does the finish product look like and how did it get there? It frames your (my) thinking better when I don't have an answer. If I take the learned experience of what I've done (A) what I'm working on already (B), and I know I want to make (Z), that's end-to-beginning thinking.
Leo_Germond 3y ago
I guess it means for some "plan do check act" loop, you want to avoid doing a plan, a do, then to plan again (because you have something important to note), then do a bit etc... This kind of back and forth were you subvert the principle by turning the loop into a 2 step pseudo-iteration.

waprin 3y ago

Always great to see indie hackers content. Since Channing mentions interstitial journaling, I want to share my interstitial journaling app called Interstitch at https://Interstitch.app https://Interstitch.app I shared it here on HN and PH and got 2 upvotes and zero people checking it out. But I realized half the problem is most people don’t know what interstitial journaling is. Many people understandly confuse it for a journaling app. But it’s closer to a time tracking app but more for individual performance than invoicing. But I assumed I was the only person who finds this useful, which was ok since I’ve been using it to set “deep work” daily goals and summarize how I spent my week so at least I use it. Then the CEO of Medium somehow sees the HN post and emails me that he coined the term, but I probably heard it from Ness Labs founder that Channing links to. So then I email her and she adds me to her newsletter which has like 100k subscribers and about 100 people are now using it which is cool. Good lesson in reaching the right audience.

ChanningAllen 3y ago
Nice app! I've rolled my own custom solution inside of Notion, or else you'd probably have another signup.

zubairq 3y ago

I always think of these loops too. I also liked the quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." —Bruce Lee

DeathArrow 3y ago

Why complicate things? Make a plan, start executing it, review and adjust. There's all there is to it. If you put down hours in a mindful way towards your objective, you will progress, regardless if you want to learn to play piano, discover a revolutionary drug or get rich.

ChanningAllen 3y ago
Complex goals often require complex solutions. Keeping it simple is probably a good policy for most people most of the time. But for those who want to break through the plateaus that simple solutions will inevitably lead to, they can look to posts like this one.
edmundsauto 3y ago
Part of the depth of the article is what to do if you’re stuck. How do you get out of writers block? Then they offer some concrete techniques that are effective.

computersuck 3y ago

Overcomplicated