The Space Between Intention and Execution

(My first blog post, woo!)

There’s this point in a project where you can almost see the finished thing. It’s right there, you can feel what it should be! But, you haven’t written a single line of code, nor made a single mock-up design. Before, I also used to rush past those points as fast as I could. Create a Git repository or a Photoshop file and just start going at it. I’ll figure it out along the way.

I’ve been trying to stay in that phase a bit longer lately. Just sit with the idea. Not plan it to death - I don’t mean writing boring documentation or designing concept art. More like letting the idea annoy me for a few days until I actually understand what I’m trying to do. Which is a pretty good discipline exercise too!

Leaving stuff out

Luckily, I’ve gotten better at cutting things over time. Not features specifically, just… scope. Every thing you add to a project is a thing you have to maintain, explain, and defend. Most of them aren’t worth it in the long term anyway.

This sounds like I’m into minimalism or whatever, but no. I live in the west, what do you expect. It’s coming from a more practical side of view. I’ve just shipped enough things with too much in them to know that the bloated version is almost always worse than the stripped-down one. The stuff you cut usually wasn’t pulling its weight anyway. Unless there are some super-fans who cry and you’ll need to add it in anyway.

The team is working on something new right now that I can’t really talk about yet. It’s a pretty big deal for me personally, which is either going to be interesting or a mess. Probably both. But, we’ll figure it out. No real deadline set, which is great.