Strategy Shmategy

Today I want to talk about something that's been swirling around the back of my cavernous cranium. (the preceding sentence was written in honor of the big human head who seems to be one of my regular seventeen readers) That is writing about strategy.

The problem with writing a strategy article, at least for me, is that everyone knows when talking poker, it always "depends". I can think of a concept, work it out and then come up with countless scenarios that would rebuff what I was just thinking.

I assigned a database project to one of my employees and she came to me today with plans that went way beyond the scope of the original vision. I threw out some corrections and to help her get back on track I told her "Don't overthink things." She looked at me sideways for a moment and then replied, "Yeah, that's probably what I'm doing."

Well, that's what I do too when it comes to writing. I've tossed countless ideas out because I overanalyzed to the point where the original thought had lost all meaning. No one can account for every eventuality. Trying to do so will only stall you in a quagmire of self doubt and disillusionment.

It's not easy to think of something to write about and when you place undo pressure on yourself it only helps lead to that dreaded blogger burnout. What I have decided to do for myself, and this may help others, is taking my thought process only to the point where I would in a game situation. With the online clock counting you down you can only run through so many probabilities before being folded. If you take this approach to writing about strategy you will avoid the pressure and the pain that comes from firing to many neural pathways.

Tackle a subject, narrow your scope, and go with it. Will you cover everything? No. Should you? Absolutely not. If you do you'll only lose your reader and any hopes of passing on your hard won knowledge. Obviously I haven't written a great tritest on strategy writing but maybe this tip will help those of you that struggle, just like me.