Balance: Planning vs. Acting

Striking the right balance is tricky in many fields. For example, how much attention should I devote to blogging, and how much to actions in the material world? But that's a small one. There are a few bigger balance-related dilemmas that I want to address. None of them is a philosophical breakthrough, but I find it useful to lay them out clearly.

Regarding Planning vs. Acting: The extremes are known to be bad: Action without planning is likely to produce failure. Planning without acting - known as "analysis paralysis" - doesn't produce even that. "Measure twice, cut once" is a standard admonition. Maybe we should measure thrice? No universal answers. It's good to keep the dilemma in mind. It's even better to develop the mental habit of noticing when extra planning ceases to produce much higher quality plans, and then acting.

Also notice the planning vs. acting issue is a dynamic one: Planning usually comes first, then acting, then... Another phase of planning. Many projects can benefit from an incremental, iterative plan-act-plan-act-... sequence. And it isn't always a distinct sequence. Sometimes planning and action take place at the same time - planning the next action while performing the previous one. There is even an interesting case made for following the last action with a pre-planning phase - see "A Rational Design Process: How And Why To Fake It."

To make sure this dilemma is connected to the main theme of the blog - Education Revolution - note that in education there is always the question of how much research (read "Planning") should be done before rolling out (read "Acting") an educational program. It is shocking how much is done on the extremes: endless planning in some cases, planless action in others.