September 20, 2012

As someone who consistently finds themselves losing hours of time online learning about the latest and greatest new thing, I often find that I learn everything there is to know about a skill but never actually learn it.

The internet is a boundless black hole of information about literally every single thing that could be useful to know, it’s easy to go on an information binge. It’s natural to want to be well informed.

People want to know what kind of running shoes, distance and regularity is the perfect combination to start running 5KM. They want to know everything about the best windsurfing equipment and waves. They want to know how the entire software stack works from top to bottom before even writing that first piece of code. They want to learn all about how Google does their business – from top to bottom – before even starting their own.

Analysis paralysis can be hard to overcome. I often find myself researching skills I always wished I could have in the real world, but never actually doing anything about them.

What I’ve learnt, though, is that none of that research or hours spent reading about a topic matters. None of it. As the hours go by, the law of diminishing returns effectively nullifies everything you’ve learned. Instead of sitting in a dark room staring into a screen, get out there and do that thing you’ve always wanted to do.

It’s hard to grasp how massive the world is and how many possibilities there are if you’re sitting on a computer. Instead of investing hours of your life into the internet to get a grasp on how it works, just go try it. Greatness takes practice. Hard work. Getting your hands dirty.

Go Windsurf. Run. Code. Do business. Network.

It’s easier than you think.

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