I often rush into things. Work shows up on my desk or I read an article and I think its the next big thing or risk for my team. I spend time picking at the tip of it, before reaching the conclusion that this is either not important, or too technical for me. This results in wasted time, misplaced hope, and worst of all wasted time for the team.
Especially today, when there are eye catching titles and what seems like a million important things to do at once, pausing and asking oneself about the importance of that thing is key in any decision. A co-founder I know asks “Will this be important in 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months and 3 years.” That frames the question well. It doesn’t need to pass all four time periods, but you need to justify it if it doesn’t.
The second part of the question is a bit harder. Is this knowable? Humans by nature think they are smart enough to learn something, especially humans with college degrees. But the reality is that we can’t. It might not be our intelligence, it could be the time we have available to learn it, or changing priorities, or the resources available to learn it. I’m especially guilty of this one, and I’ve rushed into MOOCs and tutorials more times than I can count. When you are asking yourself this, it’s important to ask it with humility and a dose of realism. Maybe you can’t know something because the regulations aren’t set up yet, or maybe you can’t know it because there just isn’t any research on it. Whatever the case, you need to understand clearly what is knowable and what isn’t before launching into any decision.