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Business & Strategy

Get Shit Done

Model #0611Category: Business & StrategyDepth to apply:

By Updated 3 sources

4 min read

Contents

  1. 1. Core Idea
  2. 2. How to See It
  3. 3. How to Use It
  4. 4. Founders & Leaders
  5. 5. Connected Models
  6. 6. One Key Quote
  7. 7. Summary & Further Reading
Business & Strategy
Section 1

Core Idea

Get shit done (GSD) is the bias toward execution over planning: ship, learn, and fix rather than perfect before moving. The core idea: output beats intention. Done is better than perfect for learning; delay is a cost. GSD doesn’t mean no strategy — it means strategy is tested by doing, and the main failure mode is not shipping.

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Section 2

How to See It

Execution
You're seeing Get Shit Done when teams ship minimum viable versions and iterate from feedback instead of waiting for full spec or approval, and learning and results accelerate.
Culture
You're seeing Get Shit Done when “ship it” or “what did we ship this week?” is the norm, and long cycles or endless review are treated as problems to fix.
Section 3

How to Use It

Reduce the minimum unit of “done” so you can ship sooner. Default to “ship and learn” unless the cost of being wrong is unrecoverable. Reward output and iteration; treat prolonged analysis without a shipped experiment as a risk.
Decision filter
"What’s the smallest thing we can ship in the next 48 hours that moves the needle or teaches us something? If we can’t name it, we’re planning instead of doing."
As a founder
Set a rhythm: weekly or biweekly “what did we ship?” and prioritise the next smallest shippable step. Protect the team from scope creep and approval chains that block GSD; make “done” the default expectation.
Section 5

Founders & Leaders

Jeff BezosFounder, Amazon
Bezos institutionalised bias for action: “disagree and commit,” two-pizza teams, and the expectation that most decisions are reversible so speed wins. He framed delay as the main cost and valued shipped outcomes over perfect plans. Founders can apply this by making reversible decisions fast, defining “done” in small steps, and rewarding teams that ship and learn instead of waiting for certainty.
Section 7

Connected Models

Reinforces
Do Things That Don't Scale
Doing things that don’t scale is a form of GSD: manual, fast execution to learn and serve before building systems. Both favour action and learning over waiting for scale-ready solutions.
Tension
Reversible vs Irreversible Decisions
Reversible decisions should be GSD — fast. Irreversible ones need more care. The tension: default to GSD but explicitly flag the few decisions that are one-way doors and slow those down only.
Leads-to
Iteration Velocity
GSD increases iteration velocity: more ships, more cycles, more learning. Once GSD is the norm, measure and improve velocity so each cycle is faster and higher quality.
Section 8

One Key Quote

"Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases you're probably being slow."
— Jeff Bezos, 2016 Amazon Letter
Section 11

Summary & Further Reading

Get shit done means prioritising execution over perfection: ship, learn, and iterate. Shrink the unit of “done,” default to action on reversible decisions, and reward output and learning.
01
Amazon shareholder letters (1997–)
Primary source
Bezos on bias for action, reversible decisions, and day-one mentality.
02
The Lean Startup — Eric Ries (2011)
Book
Build–measure–learn; ship MVP and iterate from feedback.
03
Making Things Happen — Scott Berkun (2008)
Book
Project management and execution; shipping under uncertainty.

Why this matters next

mental modelsIteration Velocity

Get Shit Done applied the Iteration Velocity mental model

mental modelsScale

Get Shit Done applied the Scale mental model

mental modelsQuality

Get Shit Done applied the Quality mental model

mental modelsFeedback

Get Shit Done applied the Feedback mental model

mental modelsCost

Get Shit Done applied the Cost mental model

mental modelsUncertainty

Get Shit Done applied the Uncertainty mental model

Frequently asked questions

What is Get Shit Done?

Get Shit Done is a mental model used for better thinking and decision-making.

How do you apply Get Shit Done?

To apply Get Shit Done, identify situations where this framework is relevant, then use it as a lens to evaluate your options and decisions. The model is most useful when combined with other complementary mental models.

What category does Get Shit Done fall under?

Get Shit Done falls under the Business & Strategy category of mental models. Other models in this category can be found on the Business & Strategy hub page.

Why is Get Shit Done important?

Get Shit Done is important because it provides a structured way to think about problems that would otherwise be approached with intuition alone. Understanding this model helps you avoid common reasoning errors and make better decisions.

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