As a founder, you are often overwhelmed by decisions that need to be made. Here are five cognitive … [+]
A cognitive or philosophical razor is a rule of thumb that allows you to eliminate improbable explanations for an event or phenomenon. These rules of thumb come in handy in situations where you need to make masses of decisions with varying amounts of information and degrees of impact.
In other words, as a founder, it’s a good idea to decision-making principleseither you risk making bad decisions on one end of the spectrum or too little because you end up in analysis paralysis at the other end.
Here are some of the most useful cognitive razors that can help you:
1. The Lucky Razor
Put yourself in a position where luck strikes sooner.
For example, it’s hard to be lucky when you’re working behind closed doors, but it’s relatively easy to be lucky when you’re working on interesting projects in a fast-growing market and interacting with other people at the forefront of your field.
Success at startup is very unlikely. That’s why you usually need a few lucky days on your startup journey. Learning to intentionally increase the chances of finding gold is invaluable.
2. The Arena Razor
“It’s not the critic that counts; not the man who indicates how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust, sweat, and blood;”
As a startup founder, you are the man in the arena. It would be inconvenient and many people would question your personal and professional choices. You have to grow thick, and you have to learn to ignore the sideline critics who can’t provide valuable input. At the same time, you should cherish the opinion and advice of other people in the arena – especially those who have managed to find success in it.
3. Feynman’s razor
If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t really understand it.
This principle is important on two levels. First, when you communicate your offering or business model to others stakeholders you must be able to explain it absolutely simply, otherwise you run the risk of being misunderstood.
Secondly, as an entrepreneur, you have to deal with the justifications put forward by other people. Try to develop an ability to cut through the chaff of what people say to understand the meaning behind their words (or lack thereof).
4. The Razor . Rooms
Being the smartest person in the room is great for your ego, but it’s a bad proposition if you want to grow. It may be inconvenient, but by looking for rooms in which you are the least smart (and experienced), you will find the most personal and professional growth.
If we’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with, it’s a good idea to actively try to spend more time with smart people. This is especially true if, as a founder, you reach beyond your current reach.
5. Occam .’s Razor
Of all competing explanations, the simplest is usually the most likely.
To successfully validate your ideas, you must relentlessly seek the truth, even if it means disproving your own beliefs and assumptions. If you’re smart, it’s sometimes easy to come up with a complicated set of justifications that will help you stick to your beliefs. You would be motivated to do this, especially if you made your beliefs public and made predictions that seem to refute your tests. Occam’s razor states that in such cases, the direct conclusion from your tests is probably the correct one.
Doing mental gymnastics to hold onto your beliefs can protect your ego, but it would also prevent you from growing and succeeding as a founder.
Being a successful founder at an early stage is a lot like being a successful scientist. You must be able to forget your ego and go where the evidence leads you.
