Tinker, Tailor, Simplicity, Success
When I was young, I loved those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. They were mostly in a science fiction, fantasy, “Dungeons & Dragons” format.
These books were instrumental in molding who I would become many years later because they allowed me to always go back and redo a decision, allowing me the unique opportunity to find out what could have happened if I had taken a different path. This could have been bad because it could have fueled the fires of self-doubt and regret to rear their ugly heads later in life. That’s not what they did. Instead, they fostered the belief that no decision was ultimately too permanent and that everything in life was simply a series of decisions that can be tried and tested, and either pursued, or redirected later. If you make a mistake, no big deal. Just go back, and look at the other decision as option B, and give that a try. The ultimate goal being to have an enjoyable journey along the way, and eventually arrive at a great final destination.
I see this mindset as the Tinker in my brain. The Tinker likes to test and adjust. The Tinker likes to give something a try, and see where it takes you. The Tinker does not become paralyzed by process. There is no “death by committee”. There is no concern for a significant sample size to deliver a verifiable and credible outcome. That is the role of the scientist (essentially a Tinker is a scientist with a bias for action). The Tinker makes iterative adjustments, looks at what happens, and keeps adjusting until the product is the way they want it. It should also be said that the Tinker believes in their journey as much as the destination, so they enjoy all the steps along the way. For a Tinker, it’s as much about the act of repairing as it is to end up with a fully functional ending.
This model of a Tinker can work in business, entrepreneurship, media and it can work in your daily life. You don’t have to paralyze yourself with the process of a decision. You can make a decision, go with it, and see what happens. Sometimes people say to “go with your gut”, and that aligns well with the Tinker mindset.
The Tailor is related to a Tinker in many ways. A Tailor crafts fitted clothes for their customer. They look at the customer, take the measurements, and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the fabrics and styles that will result in that customer looking their best. A Tailor doesn’t truly tinker, because a Tailor does all the thinking upfront and then follows a plan. Many people think like a Tailor, and that model works extremely well in the same walks of life as that of a Tinker. In fact, a Tinker and a Tailor are fully complementary in their approaches. One creates a plan, while the other fiddles with the process to deliver a fully optimized experience.
If you have a Tailor mindset, and you partner with a proper Tinker, you have most of the tools you need to succeed. You really only need one more thing. You need “simplicity”. It sounds simple, and it is, to the point of being overlooked. It is worth mentioning though, in much the same way that Captain Obvious would bring it up.
The best leaders know that complexity breeds confusion. Doug Weaver recently mentioned to me the phrase “complexity is the Petri dish where doubt grows”. Another person that same week brought up the concept of “radical simplicity”. It is always worth repeating - you want radical simplicity so everyone knows where they are going, what they should be doing, and how it should be done. It things are complicated, they won’t work.
Every facet of life needs a Tailor and a Tinker, and they need to work together to create simplicity that delivers success. It can be a business where you have two minds that complement each other and bring a different approach. It can also be you and you alone, approaching ideas with both points of view. It can also be a relationship where you and your significant other bring these two approaches together, creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Tinker and the Tailor plus simplicity breeds success.
Why does any of this matter? Why are you reading this in the first place, and how the heck did you make it this far? I hope it’s because you want to be inspired to think through how you approach what you do each and every day. Maybe you are the planner, i.e. the Tailor. Maybe you are the experimental scientist, i.e. the Tinker. Deep down you know you can’t do everything by yourself, but maybe you’ve never thought about why? Maybe you have an idea that is gestating in your brain and you want to see it through to become a business or a side hustle? Maybe that idea is one you’ve been sitting on for awhile and it’s gone nowhere as of yet? Why? Why hasn’t it gone anywhere yet? My guess is you have one mindset or the other, and you haven’t thought about finding a partner that can complement your approach and help you see it through. There is a LOT of turmoil in the business world right now, and especially in technology. If you are one of “those” people, like me, you also know that turmoil creates opportunity. When things are in an unstable place, it is the best possible time to try a new idea. Instability creates new playing fields, and as things settle down, those playing fields level out. Right now is the best possible time to put your idea down on paper. This is the best time to put a little of your kinetic energy into creating something new, that could sustain you in the future. No matter your age, no matter where you live, there’s no better time than right now to explore an idea. It may not be a great time to raise money, but that will change. Pursue your idea, and find a partner who complements your approach. Build your idea and make it as simple as possible, and maybe this is the springboard you need to find success.
photo accompanying this post is courtesy of UnSplash
Oh, and along the way, as you are making decisions about what to do, how to do it and when, don’t be afraid to go back and look at some of your key decisions to think through what might have happened if you’d simply gone the other way. It’s not about second guessing yourself. It’s not about fueling the fires of regret. It’s about Tinkering your way to the best possible outcome. It’s about giving yourself the most input to determine the best path forward. It’s about realizing there are no wrong decisions, because you can always go back and test a different path. Permanence is an illusion and great ideas will always find a way. Ideas are like water, and water always finds a way (as they say). Choose your own adventure.
Speaking of success, I read the following articles about success and thought they might be of interest in this edition…
Successful people do these things (according to Brene Brown and Simon Sinek): https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/05/26/brene-brown-simon-sinek-successful-people-master-these-soft-skills.html?utm_source=www.shortsqueez.co&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=west-coast-banking-sunset
Successful people read these books: https://basmo.app/books-successful-people-read/
Unsuccessful people do these things far too often: https://forge.medium.com/10-habits-of-unsuccessful-people-you-dont-want-to-copy-d401ac677c91
And while we are at it, how do you truly define success? https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/202107/how-do-you-define-success