Why starting with theory is a bad idea
Starting with theory often leads to procrastination:
- You'll spend days, weeks, or months lost in a sea of content.
Many people trying to innovate or learn something new end up procrastinating for months, weeks, or even years in endless content.
Whilst consuming educational content is better than brainlessly watching TV - you have to know when to flip from theory to action.
Winners will out fail you
AI is a new tool that facilitates failure, better than any time in history.
You can help you get started in ways, never thought imaginable only a few short years ago.
It’s like having a PhD in your pocket on every topic.
Yet humans sit at the command prompt and do nothing, or worse - they sit in judgement thinking how wrong it all is.
While you mess around with what you think is perfect, your competitors will be rapidly iterating instead.
Why learning theory in an AI world is a bad place to start
- You get no early validation: People will invest weeks in assumptions that turn out to be false, and that’s hopelessly inefficient.
- People go round in circles endlessly: Rather than just trying something, a lot of people will endlessly question the theory, and never actually start or finish.
- You don’t get momentum: Without starting, and failing and pitching - you never quite know if you’re on the right track. This drains your energy, and eventually leads you to give up.
- The context drifts: By the time you finish the theory, the assumptions may have changed, making the original premise no longer accurate. This is particularly true with AI, where its hard to keep up with forever increasing capabilities.
What a "Build First" mentality looks like
Identify a minimal experiment
- Define the smallest action that tests a core hypothesis of what you want to achieve, and build it right away—even if it's rough.
Discuss it with real people for feedback
- Share it with actual users, teammates, or potential clients. Most importantly, observe their behavior and responses, and dig into what they really think.
Iterate rapidly
- Use the feedback to refine your understanding, build the next version, and repeat. If the theory doesn't hold up, discard it.
- The goal is to test if something works and decide to proceed or abandon based on observations.
Show it to many people for diverse opinions. This is why building in public is powerful—it provides real-time feedback and helps build a customer base as you share progress.
Conclusion
Theory has its place, but action is where real learning happens. Start building today with these steps:
- Begin with a 30-minute experiment: Set a timer and create something—anything—related to your goal. It doesn't need to be perfect.
- Share what you build: Get it in front of at least three people this week and collect their unfiltered feedback.
- Schedule weekly iteration cycles: Commit to improving your creation every week based on real feedback, not more theory.
- Use AI as your co-pilot: Leverage AI tools to help you rapidly prototype and test ideas rather than just researching with them.
People who succeed aren't necessarily the most knowledgeable—they're the ones who act, learn from failure, and keep moving forward.
Your imperfect action today is worth more than your perfect plan based in theory.