Law Students

Steve Jobs once said (or is given credit for saying) the following: "real artists ship." Now you can read whatever you like into this quote, but for me it says that you have to build something worthwhile and get it out the door. Nowadays that means build it quick and get some feedback so you can iterate again. It is all beta all the time. The marketplace is far too chaotic to think that you can simply engineer your way to a successful launch of anything, despite the fact the some high quality "engineering" might go into the initial release.

That said, it is important to get certain things right during that initial release (and by release I mean a product, service, or other kind of offering) because your are going to have to live with your decision(s) far longer than you might think. Once you commit resources to  something you become attached to it--and the more resources (e.g. money, time, sweat equity, etc.) the more attached you become.

Technology vendors (and others) often call this phenomenon "lock in."  It may cost you plenty to ante up, but it will cost you even more to switch. That is why when you are creating something new or adopting a complex suite of new technologies, it is important to experiment early and often. In other words you must quickly throw as much "crap on the wall" as you can, and see what sticks, before you pay for it or before you ship. This may sound simplistic, but it is how wicked problems are best solved.

However, this model for decision making is not the way things are normally done by "serious people." It makes them uncomfortable. We are accustom to believing that if we study something long enough we will find the "right" answer. The problem is that we often do not understand the "right" questions to ask. The web is the world's largest library and its ability to shed light on most topics is undervalued, IMHO. Those that are attempting to solve "wicked problems" (which is most of us these days) need to become more effective information consumers.