Stop asking if it will work

Nobody can tell you whether a new idea will work, so it is the wrong thing to ask. The better questions are whether the problem is worth fixing, and what it would cost to find out.

Anything new has no record to point at. The obvious fixes were tried long ago. If they had worked, the problem would be gone.

Picture a young man in Cairo who makes leather wallets for friends and wants to sell them online for extra money. Everyone at home asks if they will sell, and his honest answer, "I do not know," sounds like a reason to wait. But a week of offering them to people he can message, using leather he already has, would cost him almost nothing. If nobody buys, he loses nothing he cares about.

That is what a test is for. You run it because you cannot know the answer yet.

Most of us never run it because we are scared of being wrong. We would rather keep a problem we are used to than try a fix that might fail in front of people.

So when you have an idea, or someone brings you one, drop "will it work?" Ask if the problem matters and if finding out is cheap and safe. If both answers are yes, the risk is worth taking.

Not knowing is not a reason to wait. It is the whole reason to try.