| Just a few responses/thoughts on this article: > Truth 1: People convince themselves not to do something True. This is likely in part due to the amount of tedious busywork it requires to get anything done in a large organisation, since after your attempts at productivity are ruined by meetings, managers, dependencies, etc, it can become very easy to go "sod it", and just do the bare minimum. > Truth 2: Actually finishing something As the saying goes, the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time. Or something similar. Add to this how the last 10% of the work is often the boring stuff that isn't fun to work on, and it's no surprise most creatives give up on most of their projects. > Personally, my standards of quality are much higher so I'd be much more aggressive about this, and say 95% of everything is crap. As a result of this, you will also find success if you produce something of quality. This might be too optimistic, since people tend to disagree on what the last 5% of quality work is, and will often get tricked by flashy marketing, overconfidence, a slick presentation, etc. So it's not enough to do good work, you also have to be good at selling it as good work. > Regarding marketing of work > Most people don't know how to market themselves. And most people don't seem to bother at all, which is probably the biggest reason their projects fail. No, "build it and they'll come" isn't a good strategy in 2024. > The Pareto Principle > As a result, one can observe that 80% of the work is done for 20% of the effort. Very true, and if you're outside a field, a project or work that only gets the first 80% of the work done will look identical to one that gets 100% of it done. If your work looks visually 'complete', it's very easy to trick people into thinking you know a lot more about the topic than you actually do, or that your project is more impressive than it actually is. (see 99% of 'Classic video game remade in Unreal Engine!' videos on YouTube and social media) And success and failure being iterative is sadly 100% true. Probably because the more you succeed, the more resources you have for future efforts, meaning it's easier to hire the right people, pay for things you can't do yourself, not get burnt out by another job, etc. Meanwhile failure breeds desperation, and drives people away, since it seems like they almost fear it like a contagious disease... |