You Already Know Enough to Act

An Idea for Consideration

Last week, I attended a dinner with a group of executives. The conversation turned to what contributions people wanted to make to society in this precarious time. After a few people described how they tried to be thoughtful and strategic with their philanthropic giving, I argued that they should consider “dumb giving” instead.

I said, “If you’re going to write a check this year, do it today rather than waiting.” My point was that there are people who are hungry and without a home right now, and the philanthropists were unlikely to find a better solution tomorrow than supporting the solutions that organizations like shelters and food pantries provide today.?

While driving home, I reflected on that exchange. I realized that most of us get ahead at work by being considerate and strategic. Thinking diligently and following the smart solution works for us. But after spending time in the nonprofit sector, you learn that you can put a lot of effort into finding a smarter answer to the most intractable problems and just end up with the obvious answer—except you will have delayed action during the thinking process.

One of my favorite nonprofits is GiveDirectly, which addresses poverty by giving cash to the poorest people in the poorest villages. Although giving money is the obvious solution, GiveDirectly outperforms many complex interventions to improve people’s lives because it does not waste money on strategy projects or force recipients to endure deliberate decision-making processes that supposedly reduce the risk of giving “incorrectly.”

Last week, I also facilitated a group conversation where a woman said she wanted to create a five-year plan for her career. It was the same instinct I heard at the dinner party: I’ll find the right answer if I think hard enough.

The problem is that this leader’s approach to finding the best answer for her five-year plan was to wait until the magical moment when she had eight straight hours free, and her mind wasn’t distracted by the work and personal activities clamoring for her attention.?

I encouraged her to take the “dumb” approach instead—i.e., find an hour this week, write down what’s on her mind, and start taking whatever first steps seem right. She didn’t buy the argument immediately but eventually conceded that she may already have everything she needed to make intuitive decisions about her career and that doing so would enable impact to start immediately.?

Whether deciding how to give, figuring out our future, or identifying the best way to lose a few pounds, we can get caught in a trap of over-planning, hoping that more time will give us the perfect answer. But sometimes, just going for a walk based on what we already know is good enough.

Something Fun

Today is Big Time’s birthday. He knows that it’s St. Patrick’s Day, but I wonder when he’ll realize his birthday falls on a party day. This is what I imagine:

By the way, I asked ChatGPT to produce an image of Big Time at age 18. Every version had this haircut and an earring. Is this what 18-year-olds look like now???

Thanks for reading!

Charles

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