Your career cannot wait for perfectionism: Think School co-founder on knowing when to act

Think School co-founder Sridharan urged creators to recognise when research is sufficient and publish their work. His message highlights how perfectionism can delay execution and deny ideas valuable public feedback.

In Short

• Endless reports and books can turn necessary research into refuge, says Sridharan
• Studying companies and industries rarely answers every possible question fully
• New sources and perspectives have helped improve work consistently over time

There is much talk about how to do a thing, what to do, and what may be the best way to do it. Yet, before any of these questions comes another: when should one stop preparing and begin? For Think School co-founder Sridharan, the answer lies in knowing when research has served its purpose.

Research, he argues, is necessary; but it can also become a refuge. There is always another report to read, another book to open, another view to consider. If left unchecked, the search for certainty can keep an idea from ever reaching the public.

Sridharan made the point in a LinkedIn post, where he wrote: “One thing I keep reminding my team of is that we will reach a point where we've read enough, researched enough or learnt enough.”

“That’s just the nature of the work we do,” he added.

His observation comes from the work of studying companies, industries and ideas. There is seldom a moment when all questions have been answered. A new source may offer another perspective; another piece of research may suggest a change.

“That’s not a bad thing,” Sridharan wrote. “In fact, I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to consistently improve our work over time.”

The difficulty, however, is deciding when enough is enough.

BETWEEN CURIOSITY AND JUDGEMENT

For Sridharan, the answer is not to abandon research, but to recognise its limits. At some point, an idea must leave the desk and meet its audience.

“The challenge is knowing when you’ve learnt enough to stop researching and start publishing,” he wrote.

He then points to what he sees as one of the greater obstacles to execution: perfectionism.

“Perfectionism kills potential in ways you can’t even imagine,” he wrote. An idea may continue to be discussed, altered and refined, yet remain unseen. The remedy, in his view, is to allow the work to be tested by those for whom it was intended.

“At some point, you have to trust the work you’ve done, put it out into the world and let real feedback do what endless internal discussions never can.”

This, he says, is where curiosity must meet judgement. Curiosity asks what more can be known; judgement decides when enough is known to act.

Sridharan also cautions against waiting for an idea to become perfect before allowing others to see it. “Don’t hold back a good idea because you’re waiting for the perfect version,” he wrote.

There is, he suggests, a useful discomfort in publishing something before every doubt has disappeared. That discomfort may be part of the process itself.

“If putting your work out feels slightly uncomfortable, that’s a sign that you’re growing.”

His conclusion is brief, and perhaps deliberately so: “So just ship it!”

- Ends