JUST DO IT

Published on September 7, 2025

The other day, I was watching the 8 PM news on France 2. The lead story: yet another Russian drone attack on Kiev. Macron condemned the attack firmly. The person next to me was criticizing Trump: "He's incompetent and just putting on a show. He's been talking about making peace for 6 months but he's getting nowhere."

This reaction made me think. Talking serves no purpose. You have to act. Things won't change by condemning with firmness.

Macron does nothing, Trump at least tries. Will his plan succeed? I don't know. But he tries. It's easy to say that killing people and invading countries isn't very nice and that it should stop because it's not very good. It's much harder to provide a concrete solution.

Those who try vs those who do nothing

In life, you have to try. It's easy to criticize. You have to try to bring a better solution than the current one. Maybe the solution provided won't be perfect. That's life. You have to iterate on it until you get something satisfactory.

In the same way, we never criticize those who do nothing, we only criticize those who do things. It's Macron we should criticize because he's been condemning firmly for 3 years instead of doing something. I acknowledge however that he can't do much, he has much less room for maneuver than Trump. But it remains hypocritical to condemn firmly only to move on to something else the next minute.

This logic is found everywhere

This toxic mentality isn't limited to politics:

The amateur athlete who tries a program to achieve their goal. For example for a marathon, maybe their program isn't great, but they try to follow a program seriously. Nothing prevents them later from adapting it based on how they feel or doing a different one for the next marathon. They will have gained knowledge about training science.

Those who start a business. At least they try. Anyway, 90% of companies don't make it past the first year. At least they'll learn lessons for their next project if their business fails.

I remember a guy I knew who had written short stories. He was criticized by his friends. Yes, not many people will read them, but he creates, he tries things, progresses, learns along the way and maybe people will like it! I had read his story and it was frankly not bad at all!

Same for me creating the Lounio platform. Yes it takes time and it doesn't "earn" me anything. But I learned a lot of things making it, whether on the technical side since I manage the project across the entire stack, but also on the business side of entertainment. And there's a tiny possibility that one day I'll be the next BandsInTown. Of course you shouldn't get carried away, but it's not by doing nothing that concert search in cities will improve. I'm contributing my part.

Same for this blog. Yes, it serves "no purpose". But I learned to create a static site generator from A to Z — super enriching. It takes me a lot of time to write articles, but it allows me to explore many subjects that fascinate me. I learn things and express a well-constructed opinion. It's always useful to someone. And who knows, maybe one day it will bring me more. Some people earn income or opportunities thanks to a blog.

Many people criticize Musk on his failed projects and his overly optimistic predictions. How can you not have failures with so many projects? Not everything succeeds. We should rather criticize all those who said electric cars were a joke or that it was impossible to reuse rockets.

Constructive criticism

That doesn't mean we shouldn't criticize those who try. Criticism is important and must be relevant. But if we criticize, we must provide a better solution.

History highlights those who succeeded, sometimes those who failed. But never those who did nothing. Yet, it's often from them that the problem comes.

Conclusion

We shouldn't criticize those who try. We should criticize those who do nothing. That's where things can move forward. If everyone tried, the world would move faster.

Imagine a world where everyone would attempt something, even small, even imperfect. Where we would value effort rather than perfect results. Where failure would be seen as a necessary step toward success. This world would already exist if we stopped indulging in easy criticism and comfortable inaction.

Because that's the trap: it's so much easier to point out the flaws of an attempt than to launch yourself. So much more reassuring to remain a spectator than to enter the field. But this attitude condemns us to collective stagnation.

Every innovation, every progress, every improvement in our society was born from someone who said "what if I tried?". Not from someone who said "yes but that will never work".

So the next time you see someone trying something, even imperfectly, support them rather than criticize them. And especially: JUST DO IT. Your idea, your project, your dream deserves to be attempted. The world needs your contribution, even if imperfect.