Kaizen

A useful question to ask yourself when deciding whether or not to change something: "How hard will it be to reverse this decision if it turns out to be incorrect?"

So many of the decisions we make are easily reversed, and yet it's easy to ignore that the cost of changing them down the road are often small. Because of this, it makes sense to iterate constantly, because incremental progress is extremely powerful.

The Japanese philosophy Kaizen embodies this approach. The idea is simple: Consistent, incremental changes can lead to significant improvements over time.

In the business world, where the concept originates (most famously in Toyota's approach to its production system), Kaizen also emphasizes the role that everyone in the organization's hiearchy plays in its improvement.

When we engage all of the stakeholders affected by a problem in the process of incrementally solving it through trial and error, we embrace our humanity and expand what we're capable of.