Ready Enough
"We need to be fully prepared before starting something important."
Most people believe this. They're wrong.
Think about planning dinner with friends:
You check schedules
You pick the perfect restaurant
You make reservations
Then reality hits:
Someone runs late
The restaurant loses your reservation
The dish you want isn't available
Yet the dinner still happens. You adapt.
This pattern shows up everywhere:
The best outcomes don't come from perfect preparation — they come from ready enough preparation plus adaptation.
Consider:
Cooking — Even identical recipes turn out differently. Good cooks taste and adjust.
Parenting — No baby book prepares you for your child. Parents learn by doing.
Business — Products launched at 80% and improved beat those waiting for perfection.
The truth?
Environments change faster than plans can anticipate.
When to know you're ready enough? It depends on two factors:
- How certain is your knowledge?
- How stable is your environment?
High certainty + high stability = traditional preparation works
High certainty + low stability = prepare core, build in adaptation
Low certainty + high stability = small experiments first
Low certainty + low stability = rapid iterations, minimal preparation
Ask yourself: Am I reducing risk, or just delaying necessary learning?