The problem with just doing it

Thanks to success stories like Google, the idea of “just do it” web development is how web developers now think. This method requires nothing more than an idea and someone willing to do some quick, up-front work. Web ventures typically have a very low entry barrier, so people (big and small) can create things virtually overnight and can become popular in a few weeks…or not at all. The thought is that you waste too much time and resources if you do too much up-front and then it fails. All true. But then what happens if the venture starts taking off?

When it comes to development, I’m a person that does too much up-front thinking and planning, and in most cases whatever idea I had never gets done. Ever. Taking too much time lets me over-think the effort, the outcome, the risks, the payoff, and other factors. I’ve tried to get better and just “do” things when they pop into my head. One of these ideas was the Guitar Hero tournaments I started with the Angry Edison web site.

It started as a simple article here at the Toast but over the past three months has turned into quite a popular site amongst the gamers. This is great and all, and I love that people are enjoying something I’ve made, but I’m now at the point where I’m looking “inside” the web site and not liking what I see. Because I just threw the site together overnight and people started coming, I’ve been busy making small, weekly updates to the site and services. Instead of planning, I’ve just been plugging more and more cords into the socket.

Sure, the site works and works well, it’s not broken by any means. But it’s a rat’s nest and is now starting to get in the way of me making more major improvements. Much like when you have too many cords in your wall outlet, my cords are tangled in knots and run the risk of getting tripped over, bringing everything crashing down. Right now, everything has power but I can’t pull out any single cord without knowing what the hell is going to turn off.

At this point, I think the only solution is to unplug all the cords and start over, making sure each cord is then run neatly to its destination. My problem is I hate starting over when the thing isn’t broken. It’s exhausting. Major improvements do require thinking and planning. You can’t do “quick” overhauls. But when I sit down to start and plan the big updates, I look at the rat’s nest and go, “geez…maybe it’s not worth all the extra work,” after all, it’s not broken. And then more than likely I don’t start rebuilding anything and just plug more cords into the wall. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I obviously haven’t found the balance between too much planning and not enough. And it sucks.