Great Quotes Pt. 6: Delete

people often forget to try deleting [the problematic part] entirely.

Here is a quote to guide you through decision-making and the vast data & AI space from people way smarter than me:

“[…] people often forget to try deleting [the problematic part] entirely. And if you’re not forced to put back at least 10% of what you delete, you’re not deleting enough. Somewhat illogically, people often […] feel as though they’ve succeeded if they’ve not been forced to put things back in. But, actually, they haven’t because they’ve been overly conservative and have left things in there that shouldn’t be” - Elon Musk

There’s a difference between ignoring a problem and deleting it.

I had a data engineering newsletter a while back. But it became a hassle for me. The requirements of it grew. I implemented a bunch of them, optimized the newsletter. Then for a while, I ignored new requirements, kept on publishing more editions.

But then Elon’s words popped into my mind. And it became clear what I had to do. Delete it, the entire newsletter. And that’s what I did.

I haven’t gone back and opened it up again, but I had to go back, and collect a bunch of important resources, putting them into a GitHub repository. It’s the 10% I had to put back.

I know; I’ve deleted enough.

If you’re not at the point where you need to put things back with your current problem, you’re not yet solving a good problem. Start deleting parts and eliminate entire parts of the process until you’re left with the most important parts, the ones that you can now focus 100% of your energy on.

If you like these quotes, reach out to me by responding to the email version. I’m thinking about making a collection of actionable quotes that help me make sense of data & decisions.