2 builders who never spoke to each other · contested
Name the launch date in public
A date other people know about turns an open-ended project into a countdown, and the last stubborn tenth finally gets finished. Justin Jackson sat at nearly complete for months until he committed to one. Preetam Nath held his announced date too, at the cost of a night without sleep, and warns that anything needing outside approval belongs on the critical path early.
What both sides agree on
- Put third-party approval processes on the launch critical path early: a platform review you do not control can force you to choose between slipping the date and shipping something broken.
Where this splits
Jackson treats the public date as the thing that gets a project finished, while Nath reports the same commitment as unmovable pressure whose whole cost lands on the founder.
1 claims against 1
Justin Jackson
Commit to a public launch date to force completion
- 01Put a specific launch date on the calendar rather than an open-ended intention, because the countdown is what gets the last stubborn 10% of the project finished.
A public date is unmovable and costs you dearly
Announcing a launch date publicly makes it almost impossible to move, which gets the thing shipped but the cost lands entirely on you.
What it returned
- 90%
Justin stalled at 90% complete on his book for months until he committed to a date.
- 1
A 1 February commitment for the Programmatic SEO course launch was held by working 25 hours without sleep rather than telling people the date had moved.
DelightChat's beta launch nearly went out incomplete because the Facebook app approval had not arrived in time, which included producing a walkthrough video with annotations at one in the morning to submit for review.
Sources
- 3 things I learned from my book launchJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Set a deadline · undated
- The Dark Side of EntrepreneurshipPreetam Nath · preetamnath.com · It’s not always rosy in entrepreneurship. · 2021-02-07 · dissenting
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
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