Big picture
While reflecting on the past year, I learned (or realized) the essence of the quote: Life is what happens when you are busy planning for it. I have a slightly modified version, that will apply to me more precisely. Read on for more.
As I embark on any initiative (personal/work), I try to first understand the “Big Picture”. I do a lay-of-the-land exercise, identify the most important moving parts, the one-way/two-way doors, and so on. Well, that’s a practical approach to do things, right? Yes, except that it rarely works, at least the way it is intended to be.
Does that mean my initiatives never complete? No. They do get done. But the big picture is never complete. I keep thinking about the lack of a clear big picture and having a nagging guilt about that. But due to other pressures (typically schedule, stakeholder etc.), I start doing things, which I am always worried to be suboptimal.
Here are a few examples, big & small, where the Big Picture is still in the works, but the projects have gone on, or even completed. (1) Constructing a house — About 50% done. (2) Buying an apartment with clear financial analysis — Finished the buying and have been living here for 15 years. (3) Having a kid — She’s 10 years old now. (4) Career — Have worked for 20+ years. (5) Life & Purpose — Have lived for 40+ years. (6) Deciding on school for the child — She will be in middle-school soon. (7) Writing as a hobby — Been blogging for 17+ years. (8) Managing money — Been investing, in one form or another, for 12+ years.
You get the idea. (I could add several work-related examples, but why risk it? Ha!)
So, here is the modified version of that quote: Projects are things that happen when you are still figuring out the big picture.
Like this “lay-of-the-land” exercise, another area where I struggle with is the “state-of-the-union” exercise. On different aspects of life, I try to take stock once in a while. As much as I try to get to a clear narrative of the state-of-union for the different aspects, I don’t ever complete it. I have the SOTU exercise for the past few years sitting in my note-taking app, all half-done. I try to complete it until April of every year, before giving up. Just that I feel increasingly less-guilty and more-numb about leaving them mid-way.
Through the process of writing this post (you write to think, and all those aphorisms around it seem true, huh!), I think I realize why this happens: The endeavor to understanding the Big Picture isn’t the problem by itself. It is the “Set up the Dev environment” part of it, that is the issue. What I mean by “set up dev environment” is: The urge to set up everything perfectly, answer all seemingly essential questions, ensure I can be in control and on top of whatever crops up, and so on. That is the issue. Several of these are wild problems, for which, I am afraid, one cannot set up a dev environment right at the start.
Should I want to understand the lay-of-the-land? Sure. Should I want the 10K feet view of things? Of course. Should I set up the environment and tools before I start? Indeed. Should I take stock of the situation once a while? Definitely. But I think it is essential to timebox those, stop getting paralyzed with analysis, and immediately start doing something. I will anyway be forced to do that by circumstances. (The projects that don’t have that external pressures are the ones that sit on my ‘Someday’ folder, like the numerous projects/tasks that begin with the verb ‘Learn’ — Probability, Indian philosophy etc.).
Will I stop doing these exercises henceforth? I guess not. The control freak in me isn’t going away anywhere. But the lens to apply (hopefully) is: Get the big picture, but don’t wait to set up your complete dev environment fully before starting. It is OK to have a blurry big picture. And there is no fixed dev environment for these.
After all, plans are useless, but planning is everything.
