I love this principle from Charlie Munger from last year’s Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting. It’s simple, and powerful. So I thought it deserves it’s own blog post:
“Figure out what works, and go do it.”
Charlie Munger
Do what feels good
Another dimension of this principle is to listen to how you feel. Generally speaking, you are on the right path, when you feel good and things appear effortless. And you are generally on the wrong path, when you feel resistance and things are hard.
Experiment a lot
The key is to try as many things as possible. The more you try, the faster you find what works. Continue what works and feels good. Discard what doesn’t.
Copy what works
Cloning is one of my favorite mental models. You don’t have to do the work yourself. You can be an observer and copy what works. This is mostly what I do. I rarely have original insights. Everything is a blend of things I have observed.
Positive vs. negative feedback
Here’s a related concept I learned from Psycho-Cybernetics:
The human brain and nervous system (= the subconscious) are an autonomous goal-achieving machine, using negative feedback to auto-correct.
So while finding what works is great (positive feedback), finding what doesn’t work (negative feedback) is equally important.
So don’t fret about your mistakes and failures. Instead use this negative feedback to improve your machine.
