thinking and doing

there is a tremendous amount to be said for thinking through a problem. for planning instead of reacting. for considering different vectors of approach. for weighing options and the various tradeoffs between them.

thinking is work. that fact shocks a fair number of people, but spending time pondering over a situation can often times be as, or more, useful than slogging through the problem itself. “measure twice, cut once” as they say.

but never fool yourself into believing that thinking is shipping.

we idolize bill gates and steve jobs not because they thought big thoughts and found interesting ways around intricate problems. we idolize them because they shipped their products and changed the world.

thinking is great, but it means very little without the doing.