Better an under equipped doer than an over equipped poser. -Gordon Ramsay

If you’re in a rush jump straight to number five and six.

There’s something about nice gadgets and how it’s nice to have a collection of the perfect tools. I subscribed to this philosophy a lot. I want the best and most organized system. From paper to my note app to my blog.

The thing is things haven’t been smooth. Not because the tools suck but because I suck. I suck because I’ve been doing the wrong thing.

A few months ago I started learning how to cook. I downloaded a cookbook and bought a few items. A towel, a peeler and a $5 cleaver which I read works as a good cheap practice knife in preparation for a proper chef’s knife. I eventually added a few things. A recipe was learned then another one. I was watching Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay online and reading the recipes at the StoneSoup.   I started making uncommon meals and made my own lunch at work. People got curious and tried my food. I eventually had to bring extra because of the number of people who try out my packed lunch. Eventually someone offered to pay me to make me a dish. Now I prepare a salad for four people every day and I sell cookies and baked cheesecake on my spare time.

Here’s what I learned from the experience.

1.** I should be biased on taking action now and correcting course as things don’t go well.** A burnt dish is fine. Learn what to avoid and execute properly next time.

  1. Perfect is the enemy of practical. You won’t get perfect if you’re not moving. The worst thing you can do is to aim for perfect while standing still. Move. Act.

  2. The simplest tools and the minimum effective dose can get you somewhere. The perfect tools get you nowhere. With blogging I waited for a usb then a laptop and a smartphone and I became so crappy at it because I fiddled with all the fucking tools to get organized. Now I do something simpler. Paper. Notes on the phone. Manually typed. The rest is tossed in the trash. Where do I type? Wordpress webapp. When I type on evernote or scrivener I do nothing. It’s pathetic. All the killer gear but harmless like a rabbit. Take a stab with what you have.

  3. Advice is useless unless you are taking action. You can ask any expert on a topic that you are trying to learn or do. The thing is concepts won’t make sense unless you are doing it. If I wanted a restaurant business and I go to the best restaurant owner in the world they can give me the most awesome advice and it won’t make sense for me unless I am already making and selling food.

  4. Action, Starting, Now, Using the simplest tools, Repeating what works, Gaining Experience is all there is to it. Not reading some fucking book or a blog and learning everything to it before taking action will time travel you several years into the future without accomplishing a damn thing.

  5. Instead of editing, publish what you have now and write a better one in the future. Blog posts get old. You can always launch new and better content in the future. This applies to cooking and your job and whatever the heck you want to to. I’ve been holding back the good for years now. Over time I have a simplenote app with 200 notes, an evernote app with 2,000 unused notes, a hundred files on google docs and a pile of papers. I write this and check my computer and say to myself “motherfucker” If I hired someone to do this for me and I find a few thousand incomplete work I would fire that person. Sounds familiar. Do it fucking now. Serve that burnt steak and move on. Get better and you’ll make better shit later.

This is my personal guide to procrastination. If you can relate hit me up in the comments or send me an email. Now quit reading and get started.


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