What Must be Done

A few years ago, I started collecting notes and quotes from various sources. Like books, blogs, and occasionally the comment section of Hacker News. The inspiration came from author Ryan Holiday. Ryan takes notes on subjects he reads about. Later uses these notes as a foundation when writing his own books. One of the quotes (sadly I forgot to write where I read it) goes as follows: “Let them keep doing what’s popular. You keep doing what’s necessary.” Like most of the notes I have collected, this one is short and powerful. No explanation needed. Do what is necessary. That’s it. Of course, it is one thing to read it and understand it. It’s not much to read (11 words), and it is easy to understand. But to live up to it; that’s the hard part. Doing the popular thing is, by all accounts, more popular. Which makes the necessary thing even more important. So what will you do? The popular thing, or the important one?