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The Tension Between Building, Operating, and Thinking About the Future

Published:
· 1 min read

Originally posted on LinkedIn

There’s always a tension between building, operating, and thinking about the future.

When you start something, it’s all about the future vision.

Then it becomes all about building — executing on the vision.

But later, the problem hits — it becomes all about operating.

And if all we do is operate, we stop thinking about the future and stop building. And if we stop doing those 2 things, our projects eventually die ☠️.

You have to carve out time for both. For example, taking a few days per semester to think about the future and strategy (“offsites”).

Today the Ignia fellows are having a “Build Day.” Everyone comes to a cool spot (this time La Cesta de la 81, AKA ‘the office’) and we sit down to JUST build.

There’s a famous article in tech circles — the Maker’s Schedule. You block out several days a week for coding to make sure it actually happens.

Whatever the strategy — you have to make time for all 3 things. Thinking about the future 🤔, building ⚒️, and operating 🏃‍♂️

How do you carve out time for each?