Your Life Is Like a Bag of Avocados

Life Is Like a Bag of Avocados

You can never be sure when the time is ripe.

But when in doubt, it’s better to take action than do nothing.

Because if your action turns out to be a mistake…

looking at unripe avocado — “Oh no! It’s not ripe.”

…as long as you didn’t act thoughtlessly…

…the consequences are unlikely to be as bad as you fear.

Because you’ll come up with self-justifying excuses.

Avocados never go ripe — “Pfft. Walmart avocados. They never go ripe.”

Because you’ll find a way to make the most of the situation.

Shrugging at not-yet-ripe avocado — “I can still use it in a smoothie.”

And, often, you can afford to try again.

Pulling out a second avocado to try again — “This one looks better.”

But if you do nothing…

You may miss your window and be stuck with a rotten feeling, wondering what might have been.

Throwing bag of avocados into compost — “What a waste of my bag of avocados.”

Plus, the more you act, the better your judgment.

Smelling an avocado — “Needs 37 more minutes.… beside a banana.”

And the more avocados you’ll ultimately enjoy—with fewer rotten regrets.

So go find an avocado that might be ripe and slice it.

My Super Rotten (Non-)Move

For a real-life lesson about this that cost me hundreds of thousands of avocados, watch my new video:

Thought Starters

🪂 Less default, more do-fault: “It should be the default that the status quo is a bad thing; instead of justifying why something should be done, the burden of proof should rest on those who believe things should remain the same.” – Ben Thompson
🤷‍♂️ Be satisfice-actory. “Satisfice” is one of my favorite words. It’s a mash-up of satisfy and suffice and means to go with the minimum satisfactory decision rather than overcomplicate and overthink things in pursuit of perfection.
🧷 Play it unsafe? “I didn’t want to be in the business of playing it safe. I wanted to be in the business of creating possibilities for greatness.” – Bob Iger
🙃 Flip it. If you were doing [whatever you’re vacillating about] already, how likely would you go back to your current status quo?

Society sands people smooth. I call it conformity waste.

The Zag is my running investigation into reversing it: decoding what makes you different and putting it to work. I publish what I find every 2 to 3 weeks. Zero spam.

About the author

I’m on an adventure developing better systems for understanding and designing around what makes each of us different. The Zag is where I share what I’m learning.