That Randy Brown

Just Do It and Other Bad Advice

I was chatting with Stephen the other day, and it reminded me how vaporous advice like 'don't stress' or 'calm down' are. In most cases, a person knows that that's what's needed, and saying it doesn't help--they need a 'how', not a 'what'. I was reminded of this when I reached out to a community for onboarding for developing content for a game, and was passed along the advice 'just do it'.

I think I'll be fine. But it made me realize, in thinking about how some people need options and on ramps, that this advice might have a chilling effect on contribution; people that can't 'just do it' just ... won't do it. In an effort to be open to whatever one does, perhaps we can make it harder for people that need support.