11/24/2025
I’m someone who likes to work a little slower, explore a subject in-depth, and always go back to basics. If you’re reading this, you probably appreciate a similar craftsmen-like approach, and often find good ideas, overlooked by popular trends.
Craftsmen correctly identify that true principles and skills that don’t change. This helps them see past the latest craze, tune out noise, and focus on long-term impact. But success with this approach can grow into a temptation to ignore time entirely. We can come to believe that our work is time-less. If we put in the hard work to make a great project, it will be appreciated, no matter when it’s done or what comes after.
On a personal level, this is obviously not true. We go through seasons of life where time, skills, energy, and interests vary, Seasons for projects are limited, and the nature of the work we can do in each season also changes. I unfortunately, have had to leave projects behind, not because they are not good, but because I am no longer the person who had the vision and excitement that started them.
I recently saw an interview with John Carmack, that prompted this topic:
I used to be known for the catch line, “It’ll be done when it’s done.”. You know, “When will Doom ship?”, “When it’s done.”
With a little bit more perspective now. If you’re talking slipping a quarter, slipping six months? Yeah great that’s definitely fine. But, when you’re talking about slipping years? When years go by, the world changes around you. Time has a physicality that you may not appreciate.
We spent six years on that game [Rage]. It was using flashy new technology. We had an E3 where we were game of show. But it didn’t quite ship. And by the time it got out, the world had changed around us. The technology decisions that were made for some earlier systems weren’t necessarily the right thing for the latest ones. We now had Call of Duty and Battlefield as these juggernauts we were competing with. I look back at it as one of those real decisions. I think we should have done whatever it would have taken to ship that two years earlier. Be less ambitious with some of the technologies and get it out earlier.
Changing technology, and competition were specifically identified but we can list all kinds of things that change for-the-worse over a long project:
The vision becomes less inspiring, as contributors and customers acclimate to the message.
The insights behind the project become realized by others, and incorporated into other works.
Marketing which rang culturally true, now sounds out of place.
Knowledge about project details become lost to turnover and memory.
Every project makes assumptions about what the world will look like when it’s finished (what people will like, use, want, etc). The longer that prediction must extend into the future, the harder it is to get right, and the greater the cost to update, and maintain those parts that expire.
And those changing seasons of life? They happen to every single person contributing to a project. You cannot expect anyone to operate or contribute in the exact same way they do now, even if they are committed to seeing it through.
John follows up with a related experience, from a different project:
Quake was the first really traumatic game to ship, internally. We’re still only talking like two-year developments but at the time it felt really long. We had all sorts of internal strife because we were trying to do so many things: six degree of freedom rendering, modding, internet-based game servers, and it was a lot of stuff. I later looked back and said, we could have done half of those things in a “Super Doom” and shipped it earlier and then done the other half even better on a game coming later. I still roll that over in my mind.
I find this quote striking. Because unlike Rage, Quake was an out-of-the park success! The game was well received. It made a lot of money. The technology was incredible, influenced the whole industry, and set them up for different projects. But he is still “rolling over” decisions that might have saved 6-12 months, nearly 30 years later! 1
–
Recently, I was working at a startup that shared a lot of my interests in craftsmanship. They wanted to build the right technology, had a big long-term plan, and a great market opportunity. It probably goes without saying, but this is a rare gig to find.
I also was able to join at a magical time. The product had been prototyped, all the funding was secured, they had smart people, and all we had to do was execute.
But strangely that time never came, not because of many major roadblocks. We just kept on doing what craftsmen do well; finding better ways to do things, coming across new technologies, growing our feature set. It became momentum for the whole organization. Months went by, then years, and somehow we weren’t any closer to ship. All of the learning that would come from pausing development, polishing, and engaging with real customer problems, kept being pushed down the road.
I was growing impatient, but otherwise occupied with interesting technical problems. Then I heard Carmack’s interview and realized my fun and comfortable job was actually becoming an urgent issue. I left for another orotund, which turned out to be exactly what I needed. It taught me all I originally wanted to learn about startups, and allowed more of my skills to be appreciated, I can tell you about it another time. But what I know is my life would be very different had I stayed working on that same project for a few more years.