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this is something i'd really like to read about, and how they design for all the contingencies and things that can go wrong on a practical and hardware/software level.
I'm having trouble understanding the definition of a strategy and how it differs from a plan.
Are there some historical examples of good strategies out there? I'm having trouble understanding the definition of a strategy and how it differs from a plan.
A plan is usually specifics steps you will do to achieve those goals.
At least some people have a strategy, but not many, that's right. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardley_map
Relentless focus on where your work lies on the commodification spectrum, moving up the value chain, etc.
> The theory goes that ideas are cheap, and execution is everything.
This isn't wrong. In fact, it seems more right than wrong. All people, all the time, think they have ideas, some even novel. Not many can carry them out in practice.
I do agree with the article that the culture of celebrating mindless productivity is mistaken.
> The problem isn't that people can't think strategically. The problem is that real life has a way of making your strategy obsolete. As Mike Tyson said: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Having a team that communicates effectively and and is agile (in the normal sense of the word) and executes effectively is more important than strategy.
Or alternatively: "No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy" https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/05/04/no-plan/
Strategy is conflated with vision or mission. People use the word as a noun, an adverb, and an adjective and all the while talking past each other.
Its use across domains, history, and context all with different meanings make it rife for misunderstanding.
> The problem isn't that people can't think strategically. The problem is that real life has a way of making your strategy obsolete. As Mike Tyson said: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Having a team that communicates effectively and and is agile (in the normal sense of the word) and executes effectively is more important than strategy.
Been part of a team that was very agile and executed quite effectively every day. We just put out fires caused by our bad code. It worked fine in some way every time but hours were wasted but everyone worked hard and gave their best.
I guess a strategy in this context would be post-mortems and root-cause analysis and time for the devs to actually learn the frameworks they are abusing.
The overwhelming majority of “strategies” are just rigid sequences of time bound outputs/shit you want to build, that always end up being wrong and needing to change because of new information coming in. Strategy needs to be: - We’ve identified this deep problem in the world that needs to be fixed - We want to bring the Vision to life where that problem is gone (a big bold future state of the world). - We believe bri…