It is really hard to solve problems with information
For anyone who knows me, knows that I have a deep seated interest in personal productivity. I am constantly on the lookout for new tools and workflows to optimise my personal & professional life. I have recently settled on a few tools to optimise my writing workflow for Facets of Life and my LinkedIn posts & essays, along with my personal life.
As you could imagine, my YouTube algorithm is finely tuned to show videos that fit the bill. It has videos that show complex workflows, automations and tools that basically look equivalent to a business process of a small startup. And I don’t mean it in a discrediting way, rather in an envious way.
In the process of finalising these tools, I went through about a 100 videos on YouTube to design the perfect workflow; one that uses the most nuanced and sophisticated technology and tools, one that would enable me to write in the most effective way possible.
I had to select an idea capture tool, a quick note taking tool and a tool where I would draft these essays before I publish them on the internet for the world (or people who are interested in quirky little insights from my experiences) to read.
After all the exploration in the world, I decided on three tools, two of which have been on my phone and laptop for years, and I hadn’t used them at all until I went on this expedition.
- Idea Capture Tool: Apple Reminders
- Quick Note Taking Tool: Apple Notes
- Writing Tool: Obsidian
Now, there are three things that I gleaned out of this experience.
- Apple as an organisation is greatly focussed on personal productivity. The tools are some of the simplest, but the most effective tools I have ever used.
- I am an extremely simple minded person, who cannot comprehend using 15 different tools every day to sustain my life.
- We hardly ever need anything new to get started on a new project in life.
The third point is what I want to double click into in this article.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
— Arthur Ashe
We don’t really need anything new to get started.
The modern world is full of information, so much so that you can search for the weirdest things on the internet (and now artificial intelligence) and there is a guarantee that you will return with insights you did not have before. The good part about us being an evolving/evolved society is that we have or can come up with a solution for almost every problem.
This is especially helpful for simplifying the initiatives we take and solving the problems we face in our lives everyday. We can look up potential solutions before we ever get started with solving the problems ourselves. This saves us trial and error, and time. Basically, education is more available, and experience could easily take a back seat in most situations.
Our personal experiences can be governed my millions of YouTube videos, articles and tutorials – which are always a few clicks or taps of the screen away.
In my experience, the intention of our initial research is usually to determine what do we need to get started. And true to its nature, the internet always provides recommendations to the same effect. You must have seen video thumbnails and articles that say:
- X is a must have product before you start on your journey to do Y
- Don’t start X before you know these three things
You can replace X and Y with whatever you are experiencing in your life.
Honestly, for someone getting started, the biggest problem is not a nuance, it’s just getting started.
Circling back to my productivity workflow ordeal, I realised that I didn’t need anything new to get started with writing effectively. I admit, I did pick Obsidian. But that was because I was facing a practical problem with Apple Notes. I couldn’t see the word count of my articles. I wanted to solve a problem. I didn’t need this tool to get started.
“Okay, but what about the exceptions?”
There are a few counterpositions to this argument, which I have come across.
- In certain disciplines, you need some prerequisites.
- It’s easy to say “you don’t need nothing new” when you have a number of assets built over a period of time.
- Pre-mature actions could very likely lead to a net-negative outcome.
Let’s unpack these one at a time.
Nuanced disciplines need pre-requisites
It’s very hard to argue with this logic. You cannot hire a team for your new startup without having capital to deploy.
However, what I have experienced myself is we make these prerequisites as hindrances, even for things that could be accomplished without them.
Let’s take the startup example for a second. For someone who is in the very early stages, before they have gone to the public or formed the idea; funding is a step that comes way later. “I don’t have the money” doesn’t or rather shouldn’t impact one’s ability to think of ideas, create product or service outlines.
Advising sometimes overlook accumulated assets
I am not an expert in any field, but I believe saying this is truly unfair to people who have established their credibility. Saying that “Oh, it’s easy for you to say I don’t need anything because you’ve already made it” is almost like they started as people who made it.
Any biography worth reading has the story of the protagonist overcoming hardship. Consider this phase to be your hardship, and march on to the point where you can sit on the advising side of the table, rather than being a skeptic.
Pre-mature actions could lead to a negative outcome
If you’re at a premature stage in any endeavour, in my opinion, the negative outcome is going to be just as small as the steps you take. You’re not going to alter production code when you start as an intern in a technology company. You’re more than likely be filling out forms and documentation needed to support the code, which you may get wrong, but it’s not going to be the end of the world.
Waiting to get started because you feel like you’ll get something wrong is just as bad as not starting at the right time because the world is going to change, and because you have been static, you’re going to be passed by.
“Makes sense, what should I do differently?”
There are a million and one reasons that will stop you from starting something new, something you feel excited and happy about. Some of those things will be in our control, others would not.
My whole point with this article is that we should not let things in our control be blockers, because then and only then will we be able to spend time solving for things which are beyond our control. Solution orientation cannot exist in a blocked frame of mind.
So the next time we are stuck, let’s think whether we can start with a small step and then break the mountain standing in our way.
Facets of Life 
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