meaning of "go about doing something"

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hi,

Here, another steve jobs’ saying:

One of the pioneers of our industry, Alan Kay, has a lot of great quotes throughout the years. And I ran across one of them recently that explains how we look at this [stuff related to software], explains why we go about doing things the way we do. Because we loves software. And here’s the quote: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Alan said this thirty years ago.

1. go about doing things… what does it mean? “… explains why we try hard the way we do”? What is the exact meaning of the phrase?
2. Here, he said “… explains why we go about doing things the way we do.” I think he answered himself “Because we loves software.” If the sentence is like this:"And I ran across one of them recently that explains how we look at this [stuff related to software], explains why we go about doing things the way we do because we loves software. The meaning of whole sentence would be weird. What do you think?

Thanks in advance,
sweetpumpkin

[Dozy]

“to go about doing something” (in this sense) means to prepare for and carry out a task. It refers to the manner of doing the task and the steps that must be performed. It is not specifically connected with trying hard.

“How do we go about making this cake?”
“Well, first we’ll need to get some flour and eggs. Then we put the flour into a bowl, … etc. etc.”

[Edited] Q.2 wasn’t there when I first saw your post. Let me get back to that if no one else does.

[Sweetpumpkin]

Oh, so it’s like “deal with something”, I guess, as in cambridge dictionary. (dictionary.cambridge.org/diction … out-sth__2) By the way, I edited a few minutes ago for the 2nd question. Thank you for your attention and Thank you again if you get back for it.

[Dozy]

@Sweetpumpkin

If the sentence is like this:"And I ran across one of them recently that explains how we look at this [stuff related to software], explains why we go about doing things the way we do because we loves software. The meaning of whole sentence would be weird. What do you think?

Right, this doesn’t work. The answer, “because we love software”, needs to be clearly set off with punctuation. If you just run the two parts together then the sentence becomes confused.

You can say “…explains that we go about doing things the way we do because we love software”.

[Sweetpumpkin]

So, “…explains why we go about doing things the way we do. Because we loves software.” is okay. Though your “…explains that we go about doing things the way we do because we love software”. would be better.

Thank you!

[Dozy]

@Sweetpumpkin

So, “…explains why we go about doing things the way we do. Because we loves software.” is okay. Though your “…explains that we go about doing things the way we do because we love software”. would be better.

It’s not really a question of “better”. The original is (presumably) a transcript of his actual words, and in that context it is OK. My example with “that” was just intended to show how the answer “because we love software” could be grammatically integrated into the same sentence, which is what you seemed to be trying to achieve.

[Sweetpumpkin]

Ah, I see. Thank you Dozy for your attention! It really helps me out.