The specific delusion that motion is action is but one instance of what I’ll call “value generation bias”.

Most people have a pretty poor sense of whether they are generating value, and therefore seek to reassure themselves that their time is well spent by taking pride in whatever accomplishments they can track and their peers can recognize. We need this validation in order to feel that we have a purpose, and are serving that purpose.

Successful entrepreneurs are characterized by a merciless drive to remove bias from their understanding of value generation. They do so by working in enterprises that inherently provide this feedback — like startups that die if they’re not generating enough value — or by soliciting feedback from trustworthy sources like customers, advisors, or numeric measurements.

If you are the kind of person who places little faith in value assessments made without clear reference to a worthy goal — grades, job titles, signs of social status — and you actively seek out information that challenges your own value judgments in order to reduce your own bias, you are probably moving in the right direction.”

- shimon