Sunday noon. I have been stuck in front of my blank computer screen for the past four hours. Writer’s block happens, but I can’t help but smile at the bitter irony of the situation: I am trying to write a column on the « Just Fucking Do It » attitude of doing things without waiting. What does it mean?

The expression is popular among coders. When they say: “I have an idea but I don’t know how to develop it”, (or when they are talking about something they are doing that will take a long time), others often answer – the acronym makes it all the more urgent – “JFDI

This is a key expression for those who want to create an application, a project, a program, a company: “JFDI”.

Joyful Frog Digital Incubator is one of South-East Asia’s largest incubators, located in Singapore. It chose the name to help hopefuls vying for fame and fortune understand that they only have one thing to do: “JFDI.”

When I used the expression while interviewing Nicolás Shea, the founder of Startup Chile, on the stage of the Netexplo Forum, I was asked how one might translate it into French. I asked the question on Twitter and ended up with a “Putain, mais fais le!” (“For fuck’s sake, just do it!”) that the Opinion’s readers and editors will forgive me for…if I do something with it.

This slang (can one say that it is vulgar?) reveals an exemplary yet common attitude among those who are a part of – and shape – the digital world (web, apps, programs, etc.).

They build products, services and even their own tools without waiting. Waiting is of no use if the idea doesn’t exist yet.

The same attitude exists among the “makers” who use it to build the objects they need at a lesser cost, without waiting for a large company to step in and make an expensive offer.

The same goes for hackers who “explore the limits of the possible” and therefore expect nothing from whoever.

The French economist Jacques Attali said “act as though you expect nothing from politics” from the State, from your leader or from your country, in a column called “Débrouillez-vous!” (Handle things on your own!). It’s a good start, but not the most thrilling one.

Even Obama’s “Yes we can,” which people have been harping on about since his election (and which wasn’t able to do as much as he had promised) is relatively tame.

Instead, what if the answer was to Just Fucking Do It.

The Anglo-Saxons, horrified by the frog legs we sometimes eat, like to call us frogs. To show them what we are capable of without making it a question of nationality, let us take inspiration from Singapore and start the Joyful Frogs movement, with JFDI or PFL (“Putain, faisons-le!”, or “Fuck it, let’s do it!”) as our motto. Let’s change attitudes. Fuck it, let’s do it !

And while I’m at it…I just registered the domain name ;-).

J’enquête, je suis et j’analyse les technologies de l’information et de la communication depuis la préhistoire (1994). Piqué par la curiosité et l’envie de comprendre ce que je sentais important,...