Essay · ~4 min read

Planning is Guessing

Jason Fried · Signal v. Noise (Rework excerpt) Free Beginner

The single essay behind our line that a roadmap is a direction, not a contract. It argues that a long plan is just a guess you wrote down, and that writing it down gives it a false weight it has not earned. Read it when you feel pressure to commit to a twelve month plan you cannot actually see.

  • A plan is a guess, so stop treating a long one as truth
  • Working without a rigid long plan is fine, and often faster
  • Decide in the short term with information you actually have

The question it answers

  1. How do I build a roadmap without over-planning?

Read with it

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  5. This is the direct answer to the pressure problem in the question: if a public roadmap scares you because of dates you cannot... prodpad.com Article Why I Invented the Now-Next-Later Roadmap Janna Bastow
  6. A short, plain chapter that makes the case for keeping money and dates fixed while trimming features. It is the cleanest... 37signals Essay Getting Real: Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope 37signals
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