Which came first? Chicken or the egg?

I was in a conversation recently, and one of the people in the room asked: "it is a chicken or the egg problem, isn't it?" For the readers of this newsletter, we deal with the chicken-or-the-egg problem quite often. In building product marketplaces, which side do we start - suppliers or buyers? In building a company, where to find the initial customer when it seems that every prospect customer wants a testimonial from an existing customer. In demonstrating performance of a new technology in a white space, how do we evaluate the performance when no ground truth exists. In building startups, the answer to the chicken-or-the-egg problem is almost always the following: try something in a logical and methodical way and see if it works. If it works, then figure out what made it work and try to move to the next step. If it doesn't work, try another logical thing in a methodical way.

A big problem with asking this type of chicken-or-the-egg questions is that people then tend to spend too much time considering a question that has no strategic or practical value because everyone will have view on something that lacks ground truth. What matters is taking a small but meaningful action, learn from that action, and use the learning to evaluate what the next step should be given a desired outcome. The more time that elapses without taking action, the more "chicken-or-the-egg problem" questions come up in a business. Then the business becomes paralyzed.

People may have mixed feelings about Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. But his ability to cut through the noise and take actions is what makes him a great entrepreneur and builder. Since last Thursday, he has proposed charging for verified users and bringing back Vine. He doesn't waste time in figuring out the next steps.

In a fast moving world, entrepreneurs and builder have little time to ask philosophical questions that have no real practical answer. Time is the biggest friend and enemy. So don't linger.