Do’ers vs. Analyzers
Some people live their lives creating, dreaming, and doing. Other people pass their lives analyzing, scrutinizing, and debating. These people fall into two distinct types of categories: do'ers and analyzers. These two roles often play out in close proximity of each other, as do'ers are most often surrounded by analyzers. A star basketball player is followed by media and photographers following a career-best performance. A company going public on Wall Street will trigger analysts at every bank to begin crunching their numbers. An influential fashion designer will have the eyes of hundreds of critics as they debut during Fashion Week. Do'ers have always, even throughout history, had the close attention of analyzers.
Now there are certainly exceptions to the following, but this is a general discussion about the types of people in each category. Do'ers: Artists, Entrepreneurs, Teachers, Programmers, Builders, etc. These titles are flexible, as an Entrepreneur could very well be an employee at a larger company who is constantly pushing vision, ideas, and solutions - while a Teacher can be somebody making YouTube videos for a subject they're passionate about. Do'ers are the individuals who push boundaries, create through vision, lead by example, and abruptly take action. These are the people bringing industries, things, and ideas from zero to one. To counter, analyzers are the individuals who respect boundaries, create through feedback, lead by instruction, and carefully observe. These individuals are often times consultants, journalists, bankers, and reporters. They spend their time and energy on debating and considering. They provide marginal value to causes greater than themselves and very rarely see anything through from inception to implementation. There is little ownership of projects or vision and they usually surround themselves with other analyzers.
Again, these buckets are extremely general. In efforts to add a little bit of nuance, we identified a middle ground. I don't believe many types of people fall into this middle ground, however one strong argument for a place in this section is the role of an Investor. An investor is on one hand a do'er, as that individual has committed financial capital towards a project, thereby maintaining the ambition of the project, and therefore being considered as somebody taking action. In parallel, this individual has gone through a careful consideration on the profitability of the investment, takes relatively little action compared to other do'ers on the project, and is able to have a passive approach to accomplishing the goal (they are not in the field getting their hands dirty every day). Due to successfully tight-roping our two categories, an Investor is one of the rare individuals that checks off equally as many characteristics for one side as they do on the other.
It is often easy for young people to fall into the trap of being an analyzer. In a world of dopamine spikes, instant gratification, and constant attention, it is the goals of large amounts of young people to hit a quick high (go viral, land high paying job, etc.) to showcase early success, and expect that to be sufficient for them to enjoy the rest of their lives without creating any other meaningful work. Analyzers see a quick, high, spike in return on investment in the short term. And therefore are often times deluded over the reality of the long term. Do'ers see larger returns on investment (capital, time, effort, etc.) over long horizons. They materialize primarily when considering long term games. Do'ers are never really considered to be in the game until they are at the top of, or changing, the game. They take different approaches and have different metrics for success. These do'ers, recognize the long-term fallacy in other people's short term games. They optimize for value creation in the future by focusing today on taking action towards building their visions. They take small, fundamental steps in exploring new approaches, creating new content, asking new questions, and trying new tricks. Over time these strong, consistent efforts compound into something that cannot be built overnight, due to path dependency, no matter how much capital or expertise others toss at similar ideas.
Finally, Do'ers and Analyzers are in fact dynamic roles. A given person may change back and forth between being a do'er and an analyzer several times throughout their career or lifetime. People oftentimes change between the two depending on their current personal environments or life situations. More often than not, these people do not initiate the change. It is the situation that initiates such a change *for* them. Our world needs more do'ers. You can either become a do'er by making a conscious effort to change the way you think and work - or you can become a do'er by exposing yourself to situations and environments that require your brain and body to automatically adapt. True leverage comes from being able to create, supply, and provide. Not analyze.
Be a Do'er.