One of my most memorable quotes from The Hard Thing About Hard Things is Ben Horowitz’s advice about a CEO giving feedback:1

“As CEO, you should have an opinion on absolutely everything. You should have an opinion on every forecast, every product plan, every presentation, and even every comment. Let people know what you think. If you like someone’s comment, give her the feedback. If you disagree, give her the feedback. Say what you think. Express yourself.”

The same thing applies to the process of learning about a market or coming up with new ideas. If you’re trying to become an expert in an area, form opinions early and often, write them down, and don’t worry if you’re wrong. If possible, it’s even better to put them in front of other people and get feedback on them.

A mentor told me that an opinion is just a snapshot of “given what I know right now, here’s what I think.” You’re never going to know everything, so don’t let that stop you from forming interim conclusions, which are useful for further learning.

This is similar to the idea of “strong opinions, weakly held,” except I would add that you should form a lot of opinions, and try to disprove them and iterate as quickly as possible.

Note this only applies to areas where you want to dig deep and become an expert. In all other areas where you don’t have an informed opinion, it’s much better to say “I don’t know” and ask good questions than to form an opinion for the sake of it.

Notes

  1. Another memorable quote: the acronym WFIO – we’re f*ked, it’s over – which apparently happens multiple times during each startup journey. ↩