The tech world’s current trend of anti-planning blog posts is approaching cliche status. It makes me throw up a little bit.
In a comment follow-up to his blog entry, Matt Linderman posted: “It’s not that all planning is always bad. It’s just we give it disproportionate value compared to what it’s actually worth. And often, we use it as an excuse because it’s easier to talk about stuff and write stuff down than it is to actually build something.
This is absolutely true. Many people value planning more than it’s worth. But it doesn’t follow to conclude that therefore plans are worthless.
Fixating on a plan as a guaranteed solution is a mistake. But assuming that there are human beings over the age of 12 who think a plan is a minute-by-minute blueprint of the future is ludicrous.
Like it or not, 37signals plans just like everybody else. Once upon a time, someone at 37signals decided, “We’re going to build a simple project management tool.” That’s not very detailed, but like it or not, it’s a plan. It redirected the status quo and changed the future. That’s what plans do.
How many world-class athletes do you know that have never used a periodized training schedule and diet plan? How many world-class musicians do you know who didn’t cut their teeth on twinkle-twinkle and then follow a typical progression from there to mastery?
Whether you call them plans, intentions, direction or progression is irrelevant. Imagining where you are today, where you want to be — and deciding on the first step in between — is a plan.
