A Common Mistake: The What Over The How

Once the what is here, we can forget about caring for the how

an artist is drawing a path from a location to another with carbon on a canvass displaying a map in progress, sleek, pencil, black and white, minimal art — by DALL·E

Prioritising the what over the how is a mistake most of us have made or will make. The what rules the world: success is not up for debate. Like all binary matters, it is simple enough to grasp, and straightforward inevitably trumps intricate in the modern world. Decisive people are more in demand than ever because stumbling forward is preferable to paralysis by analysis in an impossibly complex and fast reality.

Sadly, meagre results will speak more loudly than careful plans. Unsurprisingly, significant results won’t face questioning regardless of how we obtained them. Ask for forgiveness, not permission — this seems to be the norm. Even if we care about the method and accept that the means tell more of a story about who we are than the ends ever could, the pressure to deliver something tangible is such that we convince ourselves we will have time to work on our ways later. Deep inside, we know later never comes. The reckoning is always a couple of steps ahead of us. There is always an interruption, an explanation, or an excuse that justifies the delay. After the what arrives, nobody remembers the how.

And there is always another what we seek, or another what someone demands from us. What we do can have many explanations…