Underthinking
"literally just do things"
A couple of months ago, I read this essay that went viral on Substack:
It was an okayish read. I thought it was quite obvious and that the essay didn’t really expand on the title. Erifili throws in a couple of anecdotes here and there, but she’s really just insisting on her idea of simply doing things again and again. Nothing more than that.
So I couldn’t appreciate her words in the moment. I read it, said “yeah, okay”, and put it away. But I guess… well, maybe you don’t always need heavy words or clever storytelling to make your point. Yes it sounded obvious, but if it truly were, why would I always be overthinking and delaying projects? Why would I dream of doing X some day instead of doing it in the moment? It’s obvious, right? Then what the hell am I postponing my life for?
Erifili wrote her essay in plain language, despite that (or maybe because of that), it stuck in my head all this time. It’s not like I actively think of it, but my behavior has changed lately and I can definitely attribute it to her words. Now, I try to practice underthinking, and act on my ideas immediately. To an extent of course…
I bought the domain for my company dreamywriting.com the first thing this year. And even though my app was largely incomplete and unusable, I deployed it the very same day. This didn’t feel right, I wasn’t really ready. But you know what, now I have a home for my app and I can show anyone exactly what I’m building. Whatever state it is in, it is out there in the world. It exists!
That’s my rule for everything now — just make things exist. In fact, I have relieved myself from the burden of strategy and the “right way” of doing things. I don’t design the UI before code, or hack a prototype before full system design. When I feel like designing, I’d spend the whole day learning and moving things around in Figma. When I feel like coding, I’d play around for weeks, refining the architecture, or sprinting through features, whatever feels right. When I’m bored, I open up ChatGPT and research new workflows or discover tools that may suit my tech stack.
Basically, an idea doesn’t leave my head without existing in the world. Even if it means just writing a sentence in my notes app, I make sure it exists. And whenever I can, I try to make it exist more — design, code, writing, recording, deployment, whatever it takes.
The beauty of this is that I’m always pushing the needle forward. Some days it’s visible — a new feature or design; other days it’s invisible — more clarity on the architecture or learning a new tool. But at the end of the day, there’s always some progress. It takes me from the loneliness of putting things into the void, to the satisfaction of shaping something real.
The thought of too many open projects, a cluttered workspace, and entangled ideas, always bogged me from getting started. Now I believe that making a mess is the best thing you can do because it lifts the pressure of doing things a certain way and puts you in motion. And it really does not take as much effort to clean things up than it takes to do everything perfectly. So don’t think much, get started, make a mess!
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I think having so many different kinds of things to work on is the best part of starting a company. I can always pick up something interesting, and I can always do things my way. It’s truly a privilege, which I understand most people don’t have. But the idea still applies. Whatever you’re inspired to do right now, go ahead and do it.
And maybe share with me what you’re up to? I accept both comments and replies to this email :)
I’ll talk next week!
Aachman