Why Untested Ideas Remain Illusions
When you’re starting something new, it’s tempting to believe in the clarity of your own ideas. You’ve thought about them deeply. You’ve sketched them out in notebooks. You’ve imagined how they’ll change the lives of your future customers. It feels like reality is already taking shape.
But here’s the truth: An idea that hasn’t been met by another human being isn’t real. It’s an illusion—a distorted version of reality that exists only in your head. The only way to bridge the gap between your idea and the real world is to put it in front of people as quickly as possible.
You think you know what people want, but until you test your idea, it’s just a guess. The real challenge isn’t building what you think people need—it’s discovering what they actually want.
Simplicity Speeds Up the Feedback Loop
Start small. Strip away everything that doesn’t matter. Focus on a simple version of your idea that solves one clear problem.
The simpler your experiments, the faster you can learn. Complexity slows you down—it adds layers of distraction between you and your customers. By keeping things simple, you reduce the time it takes to go from idea to reality.
This speed matters. The faster you get feedback, the faster you can adjust. If something doesn’t work, you’ll fail quickly and cheaply, instead of wasting months (or years) perfecting something nobody wants.
Simplicity isn’t just a design principle. It’s a philosophy of experimentation. It’s about letting go of perfection and embracing progress.
Reality Is a Shared Experience
No idea survives first contact with the customer unscathed. That’s a good thing. Every interaction between your idea and the real world helps refine it. It shapes your idea into something that’s not just yours, but theirs too.
Reality isn’t complete until it’s shared. An idea that lives only in your head is one-sided. It’s distorted by your own biases and assumptions. When you bring it into the world and let others engage with it, you’re building a shared reality—one that’s richer, clearer, and grounded in truth.
Your job isn’t to create perfect ideas. It’s to create real ones. Move fast. Keep it simple. Experiment often. It’s a numbers game.
Every step you take toward the customer is a step out of illusion and into reality.
