Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

If we work a little, learn a little, and repeat, we can do some pretty impressive things. We don’t, however, like to do this “little” thing.

Let’s work a little, talk about what we did, learn a little, and try again. That reduces the misunderstandings. That keeps us from wasting resources by going far, far, far in the wrong direction. That moves us in the right direction much quicker and by using far fewer resources.

And we don’t like to do that.

This “little” part kills me. It means I am probably heading in the wrong direction the first couple of days or months or years. It means I can be grossly mistaken. What? Me? I’m not stupid. I can do it! I don’t need you sitting around talking and talking and talking.

Maybe. Maybe not this time in this situation. Maybe I—maybe all of us—need a few experiments that are much less expensive and teach valuable lessons.

We can all do better. Let’s try to work a little, learn a little. Set the ego aside. We can do that, right? Let’s set the ego aside for a little while to learn if we can.