Some People Think Their Way to Action. I Act My Way to Clarity
I never plan. I just start and figure it out - apparently, so does SpaceX.
I bought a new office chair, and had a friend test it out for comfort. He said it was great, but the rocking range was too small for him.
I told him I’d never understood why office chairs rock at all. I’m sitting at a desk to work - if I wanted to rock, I’d buy a rocking chair.
He said he likes to lean back and rock while he thinks - while he plans out his work before he does it.
That stopped me, because I realized I don’t really have a planning phase. I never have.
I don’t plan my work. I start doing it, and figure out what it’s supposed to be while I’m in it.
Take these posts. I don’t outline them. I don’t jot down the message I want to land or map the structure first. I sit down and start writing in whatever direction feels interesting in the moment. Then I read back what came out, a few times, and that’s when the actual point starts to surface - what this is really about, how to make it land. The thinking happens after the doing, not before.
I build companies the same way. I don’t start with a plan; I start with curiosity about some field. Then I rush to sell something to someone in it as fast as I can. And only once real paying customers show up do I start figuring out who they actually are, what they’re really paying for, and where the thing wants to go.
Turns out I’m in reasonable company with this. It’s roughly how SpaceX builds rockets - not by planning the perfect rocket on paper and launching once, but by building one, flying it, watching it blow up, learning, and doing it again. Iteration over planning. (Granted, the stakes on my version are slightly lower than an exploding rocket - but the wiring is the same.)
For years I half-assumed acting-before-planning was a flaw - that real, serious people plan first, and I was just winging it. I’ve come to think it’s not a flaw. It’s just a different wiring. Some people think their way to action. I act my way to clarity. Neither is better; they’re just two different engines.
My friend needs the rock to think before he moves. I need to move before I can think.
Do you think first, then act? Or act first, then think?