Being rational isn't always a good idea.

We've been told to "use our heads" and "be smart" our whole lives, but is that always the best idea? Is it good to boil down the entire human condition to say "just make rational decisions"?

It misses huge part of what it actually means to be human.

This week I read The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

The book is about managing money, and how people tend to mess things up, but one idea stood out to me:

The idea of being "rational" vs. being "reasonable"

I thought about how people approach learning to code or building projects. There is a lot we can learn about being "rational" vs. being "reasonable".

Here are 3 examples I thought of:

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"I want to learn how to code"

Rational:

If I practice coding for 8 hours a day, I will learn more than everybody else.

Reasonable:

If I practice coding for 1 hour a day, I will actually keep it up.

Obviously practicing 8 hours a day will make you learn more than others. After all, you're outworking everybody, right? All you have to do is work harder than them and you will get ahead.

It's not that simple.

There is something that I like to call "the threshold of reason"

This is the point at which your rational thinking is ignoring all reasoning.

Sure, you could practice 8 hours a day, but what are the odds you are going to keep that up long-term? What are the odds that nothing would ever come up that gets in the way of your 8-hour study block?

Or your 4-hour study block?

Or your 2-hour study block?

Pretty low. While it is rational to think "I work harder, I get more results" it isn't reasonable. The reasonable approach is the one that actually works while taking into account the fact that you are human and that things come up.

Consider that there's more to life than just chugging along and progressing your skills.

Therefore studying 1 hour a day is much more reasonable. The goal is to make it to the finish line. Pace yourself.

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"I need to estimate how long this code will take"

Rational:

If I do this uninterrupted for 6 hours straight and nothing comes up I can have it done by end of the day.

Reasonable:

Odds are things will come up, and I will find things I didn't anticipate, I should tell the end of the day tomorrow.

I see people (including myself) fall victim to this all the time. You feel like you have a good grasp on the work and you are optimistic about the timeline.

I see new developers do this the most often. They are excited about a task and want to prove that they are productive.

While I like their enthusiasm:

It will come back to bite you in the butt.

Be reasonable when giving estimates.

Rationally: thing X should only take 6 hours.

Reasonably: you will get interrupted, you will discover something, and it might take twice as long.

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"I want to build a software product"

Rational:

If I hack away for 3 weeks straight make the best version of this product with tons of features It will be a success.

Reasonable:

It a will take longer than I think to get this product to be perfect. I should ship an early version that shows the main point of this product on the market.

We fall victim to our rational brain all the time.

Ultimately, the rational brain is responsible for the condition of perfectionism

We want everything we make to be amazing by all standards. It's actually a rational thought to want to be the best, make the best, and raise the bar.

But that's not reasonable.

The reasonable thing is to accept that you suck.

Instead of being rational and trying to make one thing that is amazing.

Be rational and make 100 things that are a little better each time, and hope that the 101st will be amazing.

While the rational thing might be to make the world's best product right out of the gate it simply isn't reasonable. It is much more reasonable to accept that version 4.0 of the product will be the one that is shockingly good.

Not version 1.0.

The first version of everything sucks.

And that is reasonable

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Thank you all for reading this week's newsletter.

I hope this got you out of your rational brain, and into the land of reason.

As always, If you want to say hi you can shoot me an email at swdlodonnell@gmail.com

You can also book a free call with me here if you have any questions.

I hope you have a reasonable weekend.

Until next time 👋