Action produces information: Why doing anything is always BETTER

Fortune favors the bold. Life rewards those brave enough to take action regardless of the circumstances.

Brian Armstong, Coinbase CEO, discusses the many revelations he had when building Coinbase in the past, especially regarding the pre-product market fit.

He credited his success mainly to continuing to do stuff by shipping multiple features instead of debating endlessly.

By experimenting, failing, learning, and doing it all over again, he learned and grew his business to its current size.

“Action produces information,” he said, “Just keep on doing stuff.”

He borrows this from Paul Graham, who said:

“Startups are like sharks. If they stop swimming, they die.’”

This applies to a condition where you can't clearly see the picture of where you might want to end up when you venture to the unknown. You're unsure whether you should go left or right, making you anxious about which direction to take you to a better outcome. The only thing you have to do is decide and take action. Keep doing stuff until you notice the fog covering your gaze slowly fading. You start seeing the other side of things you've never seen and experienced before, like finding a hidden door in a room you've known for years, revealing a world you never knew existed right there with you.

This also applies to everything in life. When you decide to do something new, whether it is starting a business, building a new product feature, asking for a salary raise, applying for your dream job, quitting your job, cold-DMing people for a business partnership, asking for that girl's number, asking for feedback from your manager, learning new skills, or just simply asking for a coffee discount, you will learn something new.

This newly learned lesson will produce information that will teach you something you've never imagined before, like finding a treasure chest after years of endless digging.

The reward can be anything: a wiser version of you, money, a new business direction, new things you learn about yourself, a rejection that leads you to find your soulmate, a fulfilling job you've been searching for, or anything else you can think of. There's no failing when you keep taking action. You'll only fail if you stop it. The journey to reach your destination will take more work than you can imagine. It will require all of your resilience to push through any obstacles that may arise along the way. You might want to scream and give up at a point in your life. This is what hard actually feels like. But once you arrive, you'll be glad and grateful that you took action, even if it wasn't initially clear.

Most people refrain from taking action.

Most people don't take steps into the unknown because it's scary.

Most people don't even have the guts to look to the other side of the life they hate because of fear—fear of taking small steps into uncharted areas where everything feels unfamiliar and strange. It scared the shit out of them (me too). But fortune favors the bold. Life rewards those brave enough to take action regardless of the circumstances.

Imagine that you are hiking up a foggy mountain. Due to the dense fog, the hill is completely hidden from view, making you anxious about the challenges you don't even know about. There could be a cliff 10 steps away from you, a bear ready to stab you from behind, a storm that will ruin your whole trip with its massive destruction upon its path, and sandy and rocky trails that make your steps harder to pass through.

With limitations, you can only see five steps forward. You need to figure out what's out there. But you don't give up; you keep moving forward, taking small and careful steps until the other side of the mountain is slowly revealed.

Taking small steps produces information. You start to notice that there's a small cliff that requires your turnaround. Maybe you meet a stranger who can show you a shortcut to the hill. Perhaps you find food to extend your energy, or you can find a place to rest for a while until you arrive at your destination.

If you're not sure what to do, do anything. I know it's counterintuitive as fuck, as our brains are wired more for planning and thinking before we decide to act.

Taking action, especially in the face of fear, can be a powerful tool for personal growth and development. You never know where it might lead you to a place of self-discovery and transformation that you never thought possible.

When in doubt, just take action.