This latest issue of Res Extensa riffs on an idea from wiki-inventor Ward Cunningham:

“Given what we’re trying to do now, what is the simplest thing that could possibly work?” In other words, let’s focus on the goal. The goal right now is to make this routine do this thing. Let’s not worry about what somebody reading the code tomorrow is going to think. Let’s not worry about whether it’s efficient. Let’s not even worry about whether it will work. Let’s just write the simplest thing that could possibly work.

I love this. I’m a huge proponent of getting started on something as an antidote to stuckness. Writer’s block, uncertainty, fogginess. There’s no panacea that’ll give you all the answers, but the best tool for clarity is action. Getting started is the fastest path to finding what’s next.

When Cunningham says “the mere act of writing it organized our thoughts,” he’s speaking to this idea that it’s rarely possible to know the specifics of the goal (or the means to get there) until you get started. Starting on the thing kickstarts the discovery engine.

Nearly every time I’m doing anything creative — building a software feature, writing an article, building something in my shop — the final state ends up somewhere other than what I predicted at the start. During the process of making, I learned things, or I came to realize things I didn’t know I needed or wanted.

When you’re just getting started, you don’t know what the possibilities are yet. To know what to build, you’ve got to start building.