I used to collect ideas to act on later too. I still have several documents full of them, not to mention notebooks. Recently, I'm trying to stop looking for more and do something about an idea instead of thinking, "not now."
I'm using the rule of "do it now or delete it." It's quite a harsh rule, but life is short and I can't do everything, so I'm focusing on the things that will bring me the most joy and satisfaction of having done something good for others.
> I think the hardest part is just getting started, so I'm scheduling time each day to write something. It doesn't have to be fantastic, just something to get me moving forward.
>It is quite simple. Do you want to build something? Then go build it.
>You notice you lack information while building? Go read it.
>Not the other way around.
>Unless you want to read for the sake of reading/learning, which is also fine. It improves your general knowledge. But if you want to get something done, then of course, there is no other way except doing it.
I have nothing to add except that this is a beautiful comment that sums up my post way better than I could have myself. :)
This! I used to spend ages on organising notes and documents because I believed that would help me work better. I recently gave that up and now focus only on taking action, and I've gotten a lot more work done as a result.
Connecting meticulous organisation and having a "second brain" to productivity, I realised not long ago, has made us all focus on the wrong things. I understand that for some people, having things organized actually helps them function better but I wasn't one of them. I only thought I needed to be super-organized but I'm a perfectionist--what I needed was to just do things.
> There's room for validation of an idea etc., but (over)imagining what completion looks / feels like prior to execution can rob that drive to execute.
I think pairing sharing an idea with an action can help because you've already gotten the ball rolling. It's what I did with my magazine: wrote on my blog and also sent emails to the experts I wanted to interview.
I've tried both telling and not telling, and it hasn't made a difference. I've told people and not achieved the goal, told and achieved it, didn't tell and achieved it, and didn't tell and didn't achieve.
> I wonder if the author is doing more than writing about it.
I was frustrated with how little, proper and useful information there is out there about studying psychology and making a career in the field that goes beyond "study this, then this, then do this internship or that course, and get that credential" etc. So I started interviewing psychological professionals and launched a magazine. The second issue goes out tomorrow. It's the first time I've had an idea and acted on it so fast, which is what inspired the idea for the club--I was riding the high of actually having done something that other people found useful.
I fell in this trap often, so to avoid it when I decided to launch a magazine, I also took an action at the same time, one that would make it difficult to back out: I sent emails to experts asking for an interview, telling them it was for a magazine I was launching. It worked for me, but not every project might have such an action to go with it.
> But how actionable is most information out there?
I think it depends on our individual information diets. I've gradually curated my internet diet to avoid receiving and reading stuff I can't do anything about, so the stuff that does land in my inbox is often actionable. Might not be true for everyone.
> feel like some social media thing should probably already exist, where people find each other to take action together.
What I'm noticing is that the people who do take action are all connected locally and/or offline so I'm trying to focus my energy there. Meet people, take action outside the screen, offline.
> Maybe corollary to this is that if you can’t do any immediate action with it, skip the read.
This is what I do. I've been curating my internet diet a lot over the last four years or so. I guess it's a downside of the curation that what does land in my inbox is stuff that I can do something about.
The thing is, I'm already doing things whenever possible as an individual, but I've spent so long alone that I'm really craving the company that a community provides. I want to start and be part of offline spaces, hence the club.
I considered that too, but I'd like the group to exist offline as much as possible; talking about ideas isn't the same as acting on them.
I really didn't think very deeply about the whole thing before writing it; I was trying not to break my blogging streak. After looking at the comments though, I have a clearer idea. Might write about it today :)
> I journal every day and I try build experimental software projects what I think is valuable or interesting.
> For example, I love goodness, positivity, light and think on these things and reject what is not these things.
> So I try do things that are valuable to me and share them with others.
I really like your perspective! We're very similar in that regard.
> I recognise that it takes a lot of work to create something. You can't just know 1 thing or be good at 10 tasks to produce something to high quality, you have to do 1000 tasks you've never done before.
I recently discovered the idea of a minimum viable product and the whole "fail fast, fail better concept." It was a comment on HN that gave me the idea for The Metronome and I ended up launching the magazine in less than a month. I've never done something like it, but I wanted this thing to really exist, so I did what I new and put it out--and the response to it has been overwhelmingly positive. The second issue will go out tomorrow; I learned from my difficulties while making the first one and ended up needing less time to create the second one.
Perfectionism is a terrible problem, so doing things and getting better as you go is better than trying to be better before you actually do the thing, I believe.
> I wish I could follow through with projects I’m not getting paid for ;)
This was a problem for me as well, but this post by Oliver Burkeman helped me take action and launch The Metronome : https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo
We can't act on every single idea we have, but it's better to bring at least one into the world than have several world-changing ones gather dust in a notebook.
> My hunch is that this club won’t work because it fundamentally is just another distraction from the goal here: which is to actually do something. Just do it.
Hi, as I wrote in the comment above: I was in a hurry when I posted this so didn't notice that the obvious point was missing--that we meet to find solutions and implement them. I've added the edit.
And, yes, the solution is to actually do it--which I realised only because I had an idea for launching a magazine and then actually did it in less than a month. It was the first time I'd ended up acting on an idea so soon after having it, which is what inspired the line of thinking that ultimately led to the idea of the club.
> I feel the underlying reason for this is due to years of the education system drilling into our heads the value of notes and memorisations for the purpose of exam taking.
I was educated in India, so I don't blame the education system (for this particular habit). I'd been the topper in school and was fond of note-taking. I still keep a commonplace book because it's my primary hobby. I love collecting beautiful passages from books and the internet and notes help me simplify concepts for others--I've been tutoring kids for years and I like being able to take information and simplify it for others.
But the habit has gone out of hand when it comes to online note-taking, as I discussed in a different post: it's very-easy to copy-paste stuff, add a million tags, and feel good about it. I've since switched to taking notes by hand ONLY--and because that takes effort, I only take notes on the things I really want to remember. And they're succinct because then I copy just the gist, which is what's truly needed 90% of the time.
> I think once you “do things” though it’s a whole different ball game.
I started doing this sometime near the end of August and I couldn't agree more--a lot of good things have happened since. Oliver Burkeman's writing helped me get there: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo
Hi, author here. I think it can go both ways. You learn there's a problem, then try to solve it, then go back to learn more to come up with a better solution.
Or you can do something, find out it's not working, then learn more about it to fill the holes in your knowledge.
> They might appreciate their efforts more if they instead decided to take action on a thing
We also need to know that there's a problem before we can do something about it. You can't fix a problem you don't know exists.
> I really enjoyed the time and writing style of this!
Hi, author here. I'm glad you liked it--I don't get to hear this often. :)
> I had a bit of a laugh when the author described how they read and think too much and wanted to take action - then the solution is a club who who .. meet to talk about taking action :)
I wrote this post in a hurry because I'd have broken my streak otherwise and so didn't really spend much time on it. I just made a quick note and posted it online because I've recently started treating the blog like an open notebook rather than thinking that everything that goes on it has to be something I've thought about for ages and then executed perfectly; that helps with ignoring my perfectionism. I didn't think it would make it to HN. (I was hoping that would happen to a different post.)
All of this to say that: when I had the idea, I imagined us doing things and reporting on them, but I forgot to mention it in the post. I've added the update after seeing your comment, so thanks for pointing it out!