← Sakib Ahmed

Lego Mindset vs. Woodworking Mindset

We can expect all sorts of things in life to snap together, with neat little checklists:

  • Tool Syndrome: "If I use the right tools for the job, I'll do well!"
  • RFP Syndrome: "If we buy the software that checks these 10 boxes, our problems will be solved!"
  • Method Syndrome: "If we follow The 12 Step Process, our organization will run smoothly!"
  • Fill the Seat Syndrome: "If I hire a VP Sales, our revenue will grow faster!"

But reality doesn't respond well to this thinking when you're building something new. Things are always more granular than we hope for. Hidden behind every great outcome lies uncountable hours of manual toil, sanding, gluing and polishing.

Lego Mindset might sound like laziness. Sometimes it is. But it's deeper than that. It often arises from the belief that legible systems are best. That they are what experts build.

In Venkatesh Rao's seminal piece on legibility, he discusses how humans have a tendency to look at chaotic systems, determine that they must be flawed, and then desire to re-create them in a more legible form.

If we accept the inevitability of toil, how do we then get good at it?

At the risk of being overly legible, there are two main components for me: flow and taste.

Flow: The Woodworking Mindset

The micro-actions required to perfectly sand a piece of wood are too numerous to coordinate methodologically. You can't put them in a todo list or a Kanban board. The only way to do 1000 tiny actions is to lose yourself in the task. To not be there. To be in a state of No Mind, organically responding to what the object of your creation requires. Whether the object is an entire company, or a UI component.

For me, I need to schedule big chunks on my calendar for these "sanding tasks" that are too numerous and tiny to put on a list. I commit fully to getting inspired and to seeing what happens.

It also helps to exercise, to sleep well, eat well, to drink coffee. It takes a lot of raw energy and inspiration to execute 1000 micro-actions.

Taste

The second component is developing good subjective taste. Polishing is inherently subjective. How do you know when to stop? How do you know what the goal is? Taste is the answer. You can develop it in two ways:

  1. Consume great work & analyze it: Why do you like that song? What kind of music gets popular? What does the CSS look like for that app you love? If you can afford it, use Tier A, design-first products to set your bar high.
  2. Practice and evaluate your own work: Learning to make good things takes a lot of practice. You will make a lot of bad things at first, and then you will notice why they are bad later. Keep trying, keep iterating!

Thank you to Scott S. for the inspiration for this piece.