The answer to strategic dilemmas is rarely strategic thinking.
I often find myself hemming and hawing over strategies and tactics while building Crash. When it’s something small, I can think my way to it quickly. Something medium, I can reason, discuss, debate, write, or test my way through it. But big strategic decisions require some kind of deeper epiphany or understanding. Something closer to a spiritual insight or feeling than a strategic one.
A thought in the shower that animates me so much I have to jump out sopping wet and write it down. A just-upon-waking understanding of what must be done that makes me jump out of bed. A long walk that begins in indecision and ends with decisive clarity. Some kind of re-connection with a gut-level knowledge of what must be done.
I have this suspicion that we always know what to do, but the difficulty is learning what we already know from ourselves. That is a different process than just strategic thinking. It’s going where your gut already wants to go, and where tension melts away and positive energy emerges.
I don’t know why it works this way (though I’ve explored it for years and keep playing around with theories) but for me at least, it does work this way.