Ship it!
I'm going to try and blog about something I've learned or am thinking about. And try to do it daily.
Today, I finally learnt what the phrase "Ship It" means. When I was in university I had to do a ton of group business projects, and got lumped in with a bunch of business-y frat dudes. We'd get together to do work at their big grimy frat house, where frat bros were constantly yelling "ship it!" across three stories between bong rips. At the time, I just thought it was a thing they'd say to express approval.
While that's true, "Ship It" can also mean having an action oriented mindset. In the business world it means "just get a finished product out the door".
I love it because it combines the idea of two other quotes that I really like:
"Be someone who finishes things."
- Dan Wilson (lead singer of Semisonic)
"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly."
- GK Chesterton (old English writer)
The first quote is pretty straightforward and pertains to how most unsuccessful songwriters are unsuccessful because they don't finish songs. The second one seems a little disorienting as it's an inversion of the more familiar saying "Anything worth doing, is worth doing well". The GK Chesterton version is more binary, meaning if something is worth doing, it's worth doing it as opposed to not doing anything at all. 1 is better than 0. For example, it's better to have walked 1 kilometre, than to have stayed on the couch and not exercised at all.
So "Ship It" means get things done, and don't worry if it's not perfect. I like that.
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