It's funny, this is the nugget of wisdom that stood out to me as well. I waste so much time in my daily life trying to make the "perfect" decision, when choosing something good and moving on would be a much better use of my time.
A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week. - George S. Patton
I think about this quote a lot. It's so easy to get trapped in analysis paralysis which is really just procrastinating a decision. Like most things, there is a balance. Notice he says 'good' plan, not any plan.
The trick is training yourself to separate out the shit plans from the good plans. Otherwise, you’re violently crossing the Isonzo river for the 9th time and violently dying.
So, don’t be McClellan, but don’t be Cadorna either.
But that's an entirely analytical way of thinking about it! You're looking at the decision process and asking if the marginal return on investing another unit of time in it, in terms of the improvement of the goodness of the selected outcome, is greater than the return on using that unit of time in some other way.
The very term "overthinking" implies that there's a right amount of thinking for any decision, so your real problem is working out how much thinking to do.
matwood|6 years ago
I think about this quote a lot. It's so easy to get trapped in analysis paralysis which is really just procrastinating a decision. Like most things, there is a balance. Notice he says 'good' plan, not any plan.
afarrell|6 years ago
So, don’t be McClellan, but don’t be Cadorna either.
twic|6 years ago
The very term "overthinking" implies that there's a right amount of thinking for any decision, so your real problem is working out how much thinking to do.
sjg007|6 years ago