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Plainly Put

One sentence about building things, taken apart

Topic

Execution

Sentences about doing the work, and about which work to do.

117 essays, 2010–2011

This is the largest section, and the one where the sayings disagree most. Mark Zuckerberg’s motto for Facebook’s engineers treats broken things as the price of moving fast, while Alan Kay asks that simple things stay simple. Jack Ma turns up twice with advice for a small company, to chase one rabbit at a time and to rely on brains over strength. Caterina Fake puts choosing the right work ahead of working hard.

Many of these lines rank action above ideas. Scott Belsky says the ideas count for less than making them happen, Paul Graham tells founders to build what they would use themselves today, and a line credited to Thomas Edison holds that an idea is worth what it is used for. That ordering is right more often than not, though plenty of companies were sunk by the idea and not the doing.

Other pages take on the mood of the work: Paul Graham comparing startup life with a job at a large company, Ingvar Kamprad warning against the feeling of having arrived, and Steve Jobs on doing work you believe is great.

2011 82 essays

  1. The feeling of being finished is the thing to watchIngvar Kamprad
  2. The hard part is letting go of the old ideaEdwin Land
  3. An idea earns its value when someone uses itThomas Edison
  4. What gets measured and watched gets better, mostlyBob Parsons
  5. Small companies win with attention, not muscleJack Ma
  6. Working alone, the day starts with one choiceNoah Everett
  7. Punches you can see coming beat the slow kindPaul Graham
  8. Ship it, iterate hard, and admit the outcome is a hopeKyle Bragger
  9. Plans simple enough to change when the world doesIngvar Kamprad
  10. The best outcomes often looked ridiculous firstFred Wilson
  11. No master plan is a plan, and it needs limitsBen Huh
  12. Choose the option the team actually wants to doJake Nickell
  13. Perfect details, and fewer of themJack Dorsey
  14. Loving the work, and the years it can take to find itSteve Jobs
  15. Anyone could sell computers by mail. Few could do it wellMichael Dell
  16. Work on the future product as if it already existsLarry Ellison
  17. Using the fear of failure as fuel without letting it steerMark Cuban
  18. Bootstrapping trades an investor's permission for a customer'sTom Preston-Werner
  19. Simple answers come at the end of the thinkingJim Collins
  20. Doing what you love, and waiting for the rest to arriveDennis Crowley
  21. Keeping a business going means staying hungryWendy Tan White
  22. Why incumbents rarely crush the small rival, and how they sometimes doOmar Hamoui
  23. Skepticism comes with anything new, so read it carefullyJessica Livingston
  24. Nobody grades the list, only what came off itRyan Freitas
  25. Running before walking works best with a rebuild budgetTony Stark
  26. Screwing up as a normal part of decidingArianna Huffington
  27. Opportunity often arrives looking like a choreUnattributed
  28. Stress at a startup, and the excitement that pays for itSachin Agarwal
  29. A rival's news can be the push a slow launch neededRebecca Woodcock
  30. Choosing the work you love, with the rent already paidMatt Mullenweg
  31. Experience teaches what theory leaves out, and the reverseTony Hsieh
  32. Staying a beginner on purposeCaterina Fake
  33. Everyone plans to be special; the work decidesMark Cuban
  34. Start with the task, then choose the toolEsther Dyson
  35. Letting a company find out what it isBart Decrem
  36. Assume the plan is wrong, then find out cheaplyChuck Gordon
  37. Shipped work is the most credible reference a person hasMichael Lopp
  38. Keep the simple path short and the deep path openAlan Kay
  39. Winning the old game faster is still playing the old gameSeth Godin
  40. Interruption and the long stretch that real work needsJason Fried
  41. The brick, and the years after itSteve Jobs
  42. Hunches first, data later, and how to tell when later has comeFred Wilson
  43. Value goes to whoever makes the change happenBen Keighran
  44. Waiting for an engineer, then learning to buildDennis Crowley
  45. Love for the work is fuel, and it has to be the right kindBrad Feld
  46. The work itself, not the talk about itRyan Freitas
  47. Working on the best idea, and finishing the good one firstDavid Heinemeier Hansson
  48. Caring about the work and the customer, and what it cannot supplyDavid Cohen
  49. An idea kept off the market runs short of airMatt Mullenweg
  50. The word “try” is often an excuse filed in advanceYoda
  51. Impossible until somebody does it, and sometimes still impossibleUnattributed
  52. Popularity and results are different things, as Gekko knewGordon Gekko
  53. Life as a box of chocolates, and the card inside the lidForrest Gump
  54. Start a company for the idea you cannot dropFred Wilson
  55. Build what you would use todayPaul Graham
  56. Leverage, the respectable kind of lazinessLarry Page
  57. A system simple enough to run itself, until it growsPierre Omidyar
  58. No plan, no MBA, and what the line leaves outRon Conway
  59. Decline usually starts at homeJim Collins
  60. A good idea still needs a route to its usersReid Hoffman
  61. One objective at a time, and everyone knows whichBen Keighran
  62. After a failure, the next choice is still openRoger Ehrenberg
  63. The route to one good idea runs through many bad onesUnattributed
  64. Start small and let demand set the directionBrad Burnham
  65. Faith without fear is how startups begin and how some endMicah Baldwin
  66. Nobody is waiting to steal the idea, with a few exceptionsAaron Patzer
  67. A record with no failures is a warning signPaul Buchheit
  68. Fear rarely leaves first, so the work starts with it presentArianna Huffington
  69. The hardest pace a person can keep is the one to aim forJustin Kan
  70. Pacing a startup like a long raceJean-David Chamboredon
  71. Showing up on schedule, especially on the bad daysSeth Godin
  72. When people say it won't work, build enough to find outDennis Crowley
  73. A ninety percent failure rate belongs in research, not payrollAlan Kay
  74. Bland is the failure nobody noticesBen Huh
  75. Doing things by hand to find out what the product should doBrian Chesky
  76. Facing forward without forgetting what brokeCharles F. Kettering
  77. Deciding without taking it personallyKevin Hale
  78. What risk-taking looks like in an actual companySteve Case
  79. Counting heads is not the same as thinkingWarren Buffett
  80. Do the least that gets the job done, and be exact about the jobJoshua Schachter
  81. Your own frustration as a starting point, plus some nerveChris Hughes
  82. Recessions are hard on companies and easier on ideasRob Kalin

2010 35 essays

  1. Choosing the adventure is easier with a floor under itTom Preston-Werner
  2. An idea that will not leave you alone says more about you than the marketJosh James
  3. School teaches last year; the market asks about next yearHenry Ford
  4. Building for yourself is a good start and a risky finishMichael Arrington
  5. Nine rabbits on the ground, and why to chase oneJack Ma
  6. Talking about a project is not starting itGarrett Murray
  7. An idea kept private has not been testedMichael Lopp
  8. Two tests for a path: whether it is fun, and whether it is hardMarc Benioff
  9. Interest can stand in for a plan, up to a pointMark Zuckerberg
  10. Past three priorities, the word stops meaning anythingJim Collins
  11. Passion, hard work and the terms left outPierre Omidyar
  12. The money left behind by everyone chasing the new thingMatt Rutledge
  13. Speed comes from a habit of doing, not from hasteFred Wilson
  14. Why real inventions meet resistanceEdwin Land
  15. Keeping the main thing the main thing is the easy halfJim Barksdale
  16. Move fast and break things, and count what breaksMark Zuckerberg
  17. Leaving the comfort zone, and the work that happens inside itBob Parsons
  18. Stubborn about the goal, loose about the routeReid Hoffman
  19. The decision takes a minute; the consequences take a yearMicah Baldwin
  20. Do the job for a while before hiring someone to do itBen Horowitz
  21. After working for yourself, going back is harder than it looksMagnus Jepson
  22. Many small bets, and a clear way to pick the winnerJonah Peretti
  23. Yelp's first idea, and the readiness to drop itJeremy Stoppelman
  24. Believing in an idea when the room thinks it is crazyTim Westergren
  25. Disney's early years, and when talking first is the right moveWalt Disney
  26. A four-day week as a small company's advantageRyan Carson
  27. Tell people the idea, then read their doubt carefullyTodd Garland
  28. Looking for the reasons it could work, without ignoring the oddsSteve Case
  29. Creativity as a matter of volumeBen Huh
  30. Managing work you know how to do yourselfJustin Kan
  31. Most deals worth doing leave both sides aheadTom Preston-Werner
  32. Choosing the right work, and how Flickr found itCaterina Fake
  33. Execution decides, and sometimes the idea decides firstScott Belsky
  34. Failing at something beats never trying it, most of the timeSeth Godin
  35. Ideas are cheap for a reasonGuy Kawasaki