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Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

This message is suspiciously like being told to draw the outline of an owl then draw the rest of the fucking owl.

https://seths.blog/2014/01/how-to-draw-an-owl/

The word recursively does a lot of work in the post.

Every project I go into thinking I can do it quick and it never works that way because the minimal viable or minimum lovable thing is a long way from the minimum actual concept of what I have in mind. I feel that I need to build enough that the user is engaged with it.

I feel like those first explorers willing to try out a new thing are incredibly valuable and their attention should not be wasted on the outline, but they should be presented with the owl.

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Well, that's because it is how you draw an owl. You start with basic outlines to define size, pose and proportion, then you divide those outlined areas into smaller sections that locate important details like eyes, beak, ears, wings, etc. then you add rough detail to those parts which further breaks it down and you keep iterating like that until you fill in all of the fine details.

You can see the process here https://youtu.be/UGVOE2eHl0I

I recently threw out the "do the MVP" mindset.

To me, MVP means "Do part A to a good enough level of perfection where customers will buy it, then release and get customers, support them while then working on part B as a value-add.." - often, in my mind, all parts, ABC add up to the whole package value. I don't want to break it apart.

I'm actually trying to do more planning and outlining first, and it has worked reasonably well for me.

Start with an outline of the different systems and how they connect, then outline one of those systems, the inputs and outputs to it. Then break down further into how does it get the input, where does it put the output, etc.

It has been remarkable in that I can actually feel joy for what I'm making again. I have also tried to start a blog with doing this type of "open design" - but blog writing requires its own planning and refining, which is an extra workload that I didn't intend to put on myself..

Just like that episode in SpongeBob in which SpongeBob tries to teach Squidward how to draw a perfect face.

The post is meant for people who already know how to draw an owl, and want to draw owls quicker.

owl drawing speedruns

"Speedrun" seems like odd advice, kinda like saying "Here's how you move faster: move faster".

You can only learn how to draw owls by drawing owls, repeatedly. The more owls you draw, the better you will get so it helps to draw quickly and often.

It feels like the article is describing how to draw an owl, but in reverse. You know what the owl should look like, and you simplify all the way down until each step is little more than a tiny pencil mark.

The first explorers will to try a new thing, as you say, will also be quick to try the next new thing. So they’re probably less valuable than you’d expect.

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