How to Make Things Faster

Chapter 101. Proving

There’s a joke about a guy who was looking for his car keys outside in the dark one night. A friend who was walking by joined in to help him. After looking together for several minutes, the friend, trying to be helpful, asked the guy where he thought he probably was when he lost them.

“Oh, I dropped them somewhere over there.”

“Then,” the friend said automatically, “why are we looking over here?”

The guy pointed up at the light and said, “Because there’s no light over there.”

…People are like that.

I use a spicier version of that story, in hopes you’ll remember it better:

When your keys are in the sewer, you’re never going to find them in the flower pot.

When your prescription for solving a problem is hard—meaning expensive, time-consuming, politically risky, or just inconvenient—you’re going to have to provide compelling proof of two things:

1. The hard thing you’re prescribing is actually going to work; and

2. There’s nothing easier that would also work.

Without compelling proof (and sometimes, sadly, even with compelling proof), people will do the easy thing every time. But if an awful-sounding solution is the only actual solution, then trying anything else is a waste of time. If your keys really are in the sewer, then the sooner you put your gloves on and start digging, the sooner this whole thing will be over with.

Proof is important to your reputation as well. Realize: if you’ve convinced people to dig around in a sewer, then those keys had better ...