It’s easier to fix something that’s broken than it is to create something from nothing.
- Don’t be afraid to suck. It’s easier to fix something that’s broken than it is to create something from nothing.
- Write your first draft “with the door closed.”
- Don’t try to make everyone happy. If you try to make everyone happy, you end up with According To Jim. Write what you’re passionate about, and write to entertain, amuse, and satisfy yourself. To borrow a phrase from Joel Hodgeson, the creator of MST3K: don’t ask yourself, “Will anyone get this?” Instead, tell yourself, “The right people will get this.”
- If you’re going to write, you have to read. If you’re going to write screenplays, you have to read, and you have to watch lots and lots of movies, both for entertainment and for education.
This applies to programming as well (particularly the first two points), point 1 is a no-brainer - there will always be bugs in initial code (although there are ways and means to eliminate some - unit testing *cough*, *cough*) , but just for my own sanity getting that first draft is important. As to point 2, if a programmer says they’re not ready to demonstrate their code that should be respected. I often find someone wants to know how things are going while I’m still working on my initial version - which means I feel irritated, they form opinions based on something I’m likely to change anyway and nobody goes away happy.