Tuesday
Mar032009
The Cult of Done Manifesto
Mar 3, 2009Dear Members of the Cult of Done,
I present to you a manifesto of done. This was written in collaboration with Kio Stark in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done.
The Cult of Done Manifesto
- There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
- Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
- There is no editing stage.
- Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
- Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
- The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
- Once you're done you can throw it away.
- Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
- People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
- Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
- Destruction is a variant of done.
- If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
- Done is the engine of more.
;)
Update: James Provost made the awesome poster for the Cult of Done Manifesto.
And Joshua Rothaas made this poster. I really want real physical posters of both of these!
There is also now a facebook group for the Cult of Done
Reader Comments (175)
You've done it--bravo! Oyunlar
Oyun
at I Am Not Myself on Mar 26
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Just discovered this, thanks to an interview with Philip Huang on Art Heroes Radio.
Off to do some stuff...
Your cult manifesto is very funny. But I can say that you do make sense. What you made is not just a manifesto but a rule of life. Stick to it and life will get a little less boring.
Duncan Samuel
Online Scheduling
Nice and really helpful post by Joshua Rothaas, I really want a poster of the Cult Done Manifesto, it really helps me to grown up in my business. How can I get this?
Cement Siding Richmond
If you wait on a idea for more than 1-week why would you feel compelled to suddenly abandon it? Sure, move onto new ideas but there's value in revisiting older ideas that have had time to marinate in your mind. Sometimes ideas need room to grow and evolve.
I would also question the point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done --depends what we're talking about. If we're talking creative endeavours then skipping indiscriminately from one idea to the next may yield more ideas, but at the expense of refinement. In other words, the classic quality vs. quantity argument.
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2.Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
Brilliant!!!!
Should be easy what with "perfection is boring" and "engine of failure" empty statements...
I think you should read the agile manifesto, it's much more to the point for a manifesto.
Thank you and good luck!
A week to get something done? No editing? Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing?
This just smacks of sloppy, half-ass preparation and thought. Did the car take a week to invent? How long did the design team at Apple focus on the tangible feel and look of the case on the iPod?
This is a great manifesto for bumper-sticker idiots and mid-management hacks who just want to spout shitty buzz-speak and act like rushing to complete something that's poorly executed and a waiting failure counts as a 'success'.
Being good and making sound decisions takes years of practice and knowledge. Shoveling shit out the door isn't 'Good' in any sense of the word.
This is a lesson learned 40 years ago when hired to build an interior staircase, a thing I had never done and had no idea how to do. I have enjoyed a life-long creeen of taking on challenges and getting them done.
Number 11 struck fear in my heart.
I've seen print outs of the first poster around multiple offices here in Silicon Valley and really have to commend James Provost. Very nice work. The cubes used in the poster are inaccurate depictions of the actual Rubik's Cube. Here's a short list of violations depicted in the poster:
- The white side is opposite yellow
- The green side is opposite blue
- The red side is opposite orange
- There is only one center "cubie" per color
- There are only four edge "cubies" per color
- There are only four corner "cubies" per color
- Edge "cubies" can't have two stickers of the same color
- Edge "cubies" can't have opposite sticker colors (see violations 1 - 3)
- Corner "cubies" can't have opposite sticker colors (see violations 1 - 3)
Your prototype engineer and Rubik's Cube enthusiast friend.
- Pete Fecteau
// posting this in humor //