Member-only story
Sah’s Notes
Starting without the Optimisation Gremlin™️
A blessing and a curse is that I’ve always got the end in mind.
The end being all the complexities, scale, and seamlessly orchestrated bits of a project, trip, endeavour, or other.
The issue is that thinking about the eventual polished thing creates a mountain out of what should be an easy decision to just start.
And just start means taking the first step.
There’s a reason why the concept of a prototype, MVP, or “mcgyvering it” exists.
Because a shit version, a shit start, or a shit try is still a real something, rather than a potential nothing.
The optimisation gremlin in me says:
- If you plan it all out, you’ll make a better decision.
- You need to know how 90% of it will work before you start.
- You have limited resources, so be selective.
The gremlin means well.
The gremlin is trying to cap your risks.
But the gremlin is a flawed creature with blind spots.
It doesn’t understand that there is a threshold for planning and risk mitigation, where not starting becomes the ultimate risk.
