What's the best way for me to do X?

We all do our research before attempting something new. But more often than not there’s no definitive "best" route for the challenge we have. We end up going down the rabbit hole looking for some data or expert to give us the assuredly correct approach. A quest to find the comfort that we know exactly what to do and that it will work out as we intend. Which typically results in no meaningful action at all.

A better question is “What’s *a* way to do X?” followed by “and how can I measure the effectiveness of it?” and then JUST GET GOING. It likely won’t be the “best” way. But you’ll know for absolute certainty that for you, in your context, at this point in time, what impact it has. If you need a better/different result, you try something else and compare the results.

You’ll make some progress with each iteration and get to a “more than good enough” outcome with a lot more confidence. Before you know it, you're honing your skills and becoming the expert who just knows. This applies across the board. Development, marketing, R&D, people management, strategy etc etc.

If you’ve found you’ve stalled on some initiative, you're currently reading your 200th Wikipedia entry, blogpost, YT video or ChatGPT thread, maybe just take a punt, stop questioning yourself and move forward right now with your best guess and see where you end up.

Fail fast, test and learn, keep moving forwards!