Do the Thing, Don't Talk About the Thing
Stay silent on your work until it is done so your energy goes into building, not describing
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 82%
Holiday keeps a personal rule: he does not talk about a project while working on it. His reasoning is that describing a thing makes it feel real and reified in your mind, giving you a hit of the satisfaction that should only come from finishing. The more you talk, the further you actually are, because an hour spent explaining is an hour not spent building. Premature talk also invites questions and critiques that erode your belief before the work has taught you what it is. Holiday cites Steven Pressfield's Resistance: the impulse to announce is the enemy. The discipline is to bank all your attention on doing the thing and let people react to the finished result, when you can finally cash in the credit you have earned.
Origin
Holiday developed this rule watching a former employer who told his grand plans so cleverly and so often that he got bored of them and moved on before executing, never in his own mind having quit.
Core principles
- 01Talking about a project makes it feel real before it is real
- 02You want to earn recognition, not take it on credit
- 03Premature acclaim gives you the satisfaction of completing the thing without completing it
- 04Describing a plan invites doubt that erodes your confidence to execute
How to run it
- 1
Make it a rule, not a mood
Decide in advance that you do not discuss projects while they are in progress, so you are not negotiating with the temptation each time.
Pro tip Frame it as a standing rule you found works, the way Holiday does, so it needs no willpower in the moment.
- 2
Catch the urge to announce
Notice when you want to tell people you are training for the marathon or writing the novel. That craving for a pat on the back is the signal.
Watch out The impulse feels like harmless enthusiasm but it is the resistance trying to substitute talk for work.
- 3
Convert the impulse into work
Instead of an hour describing the thing, spend that hour making it one step closer to real.
- 4
Wait until done to share
Hold your account of the project until you are nearly finished or finished, then let the result speak.
Pro tip Tell them after you run the marathon; that is when to cash in the work you put in.
In the wild
Holiday worked for a man who loved telling everyone his plans for world domination. He told each story so smartly and so often that it became fully real in his mind, he got bored of it, and he moved on to the next idea, never executing. In his own head he had never quit; he could have done it, he just chose not to, or he half believed he already had.
→ A pattern of brilliant, entertaining, never-shipped projects, which cured Holiday of ever wanting to talk about his own unfinished work.
Years ago a Twitter account collected tweets of people talking about the novel they were working on, who were obviously not working on it, or they would not have been tweeting. The account made the pattern visible: the talking was the work never getting done.
→ A vivid illustration that public narration of a project is usually a substitute for doing it.
Common mistakes
Talking for validation
Announcing the work to get impressed reactions rewards you for a thing you have not done yet, so the finished version never arrives.
Pitching a vision you cannot yet have
Describing a project in detail before contact with reality forces confident claims you cannot honestly make, and the follow-up questions drain your belief in it.
Is it for you?
Best for
Writers, founders, and creators prone to announcing work they have not finished.
Not ideal for
Work that genuinely requires selling a vision upfront (some book deals, fundraising) where you must pitch before building.
From the transcript
“I don't talk about projects as I'm working on them that's just a rule I found”
“they're impressed with a thing you haven't done yet you know tell them after you run the marathon”
“you didn't spend one hour making that thing closer to reality and so I I have an aversion to it”
From the episode
11 Harsh Stoic Truths To Improve Your Life - Ryan Holiday - #795
Ryan Holiday