The bigger the structure the stronger foundations are needed.

Your tall and heavy building will collapse if it’s not supported with strong foundations.

 

It’s true for ANY project.

 

What makes a project BIG?

 

DIFFICULTY

The harder it is for you, the more you’re struggling with it — the “bigger” it is.

If you can’t find the breaking point and it continues to break — obviously you must make sure that the fundamentals are right:

-that the fundamental assumptions are correct

-that the fundamentals are correctly established to support the problem you are trying to solve

-etc

 

COMPLEXITY

Same story as above — if you KNOW it to be complex — you don’t have the luxury of skimming over details.

You can only control so much complexity. The more there is complexity — the more you must ascertain the fundamentals are taken care of. You can’t afford to worry about that which could be solved definitely. You have other complexities and uncertainties to worry about.

 

UNCERTAINTY

Indeed uncertainty, obviously

Uncertainty is NOT linear. It is exponential.

E.g. if you have 2 options in a given variable, and 1 is wrong, then when the whole doesn’t wrong — there’s only one way in which it is wrong. It doesn’t work — you instantly know where the error is — it’s in that variable — and you just change to the other option.

But if you have 3 such variables with 2 options — it’s not 2 + 2 + 2 options that you must test. It’s 2^3 = 8 options which you must test.

And if we’re talking 4 variables — then it’s 16 options ! And not 8.

With 5 variables — it’s 32 options, vs 10.

See how it’s growing exponentially?

After some point you just CAN’T AFFORD MORE VARIABLES. Can’t afford more doubt about WHAT variable isn’t fucking working.

You can’t just search entire room for the lost keys. You must now MAKE ABSOLUTE SURE that there where you did search — keys are NOT.

Same here — when there are many variables and many possibilities — you must absolutely start with REDUCING that number.

You do that by starting with FUNDAMENTALS.

 

So when do you NOT have to worry about fundamentals?

When it’s EASY.

When you are making CLEAR progress forward, you don’t have to worry about IMPERFECTIONS. It’s going to work ANYWAY.

When it’s NOT complicated. When you know that it’s unlikely there’s anything important concealed underneath the layers of complications.

When it’s PREDICTABLE. When there are LIMITED POSSIBILITIES.

If you did it before, many times, and the results are simple are predictable — then you don’t have to worry, obviously. If it worked before it will work now.

 

But it’s like I wrote in “overthinking vs overacting” — our BIASES creep in:

-When you are, for instance, reluctant to act — you overthink.

-When you are, for instance, impatient and stubborn — you overact.

Likewise in this case:

-When you’re impatient and frustrated,

-When you’ve already wasted ton of time trying to find that single error (even if there are 10 of them),

…then you do not want to go back to step one and POLISH the fundamentals

Except that’s exactly what you have to do

 

Be smart