Strategists don’t get better (and that’s probably… good news?)

I've always been a fan of what Richard Huntington says:

"Strategists don't get better, they just get faster."

It feels like a counter-intuitive view of success, but it works. In a very meta twist, this is why i love a good one-liner. Or a good one-line paragraph. Or anything that acts as a good shortcut.

It forces you to simplify to an extreme. At work, this is pretty handy too. You get a brief. You read it. You research things. You start making sense of it all. Discuss what sense the team is making too.

And eventually, you reach my favourite part of the chat.

“So basically what we're saying is they should...”

What comes after that is the real gem. It's the proof in the pudding. The winning moves.

The real question, then, is: how fast can you get there?

I think this is what Richard means. If you're in the room, assume you're talented. The question is, how fast do you get there? This is why doing the reps matters. Practising daily. Obsessively, even, if that's your thing.

It's what writing does to me. It helps me sharpen my mind. So i can get to things faster. It’s also why sometimes i give myself word counts, though not always. But when i do, i assume that if i don't get to a point by that word count, i need to keep going. To keep reducing things, not adding more to it.

Maximum meaning, minimum means, per Abram Games. But really, it’s the freedom of a tight brief, yeah? Works for creatives, and works for strategists as well. Sharper minds through sharper words. Sharper words though stricter constraints. It’s discipline at the service of an ultimately more useful creative product.