Inertia Is Better Than Waste

When I look at a $12 pack of cereal sitting in the corner of an office loaded with gadgets, an office in which people are building a software that does exactly the same thing as its three next-biggest competitors, except slightly cheaper, I can’t help but wonder: Do we need all this momentum?

Is this making anyone better, happier, or even just different? The customers? The employees? The investors? Or would the world still turn if all of this effort collapsed into inertia by tomorrow?

Doing solves everything, but most things don’t need to be solved. Inertia is preferable to waste until you’re certain your effort won’t be wasted. Hold out for that certainty. It can be painful and trying at times, but it’s a whole lot better than spending someone else’s $12 on cereal no one will eat.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.