[Work Notes] The Choice Between Knowing and Not Knowing

Recently, in the process of constantly trying new things — combined with ever-changing work assignments — I’ve started running an experiment of sorts: does a person need to fully understand something before they can accomplish the work?

From my observation so far, the answer is: you don’t need to fully understand in order to get something done. However, that’s a short-term view. From a long-term perspective, the hidden costs of not knowing can be just as significant — sometimes even worse.

In practice though, what management evaluates is short-term performance. No matter how excellent your hidden or indirect outcomes are, if they can’t be seen, they count for nothing. Yes — you heard me. Nothing.

So what I’m trying to experiment with is: how do you create and demonstrate that hidden value? And adjust within the organization through means available to me?

While I don’t fully subscribe to the idea of working without understanding, in the process of actually shipping products, being too rigidly attached to knowing everything causes significant delays. Finding the right balance between knowing and not knowing is genuinely difficult. But if I can master it, I think I’ll have grown in a real and meaningful way.