Competing Against the Short Term
Yesterday I made the argument for always optimizing for the long term over the short term when given the choice. It so happens that purely by coincidence my favorite blogger Seth Godin wrote something similar today.
However, Godin’s point takes a slightly more cynical view of the short term:
There’s always someone who is more willing to play the short-term game than you are… Someone who is willing to cut more corners, send a more urgent text, borrow against the future, ignore the side effects, abuse trust and corrupt the system–somehow justifying that short-term hustle with a rationalization (usually a selfish one) about how urgent it is.
While cynical, Godin’s words are still unquestionably true. As a result, there is little chance to win competing against someone optimizing for the short term when you’re optimizing for the long term. So if you’re in it for the long term, accept this fact and move on.
Don’t waste your energy worrying about losing against short term people. Short term people won’t be around in the long term, and short term setbacks don’t outweigh long term comebacks.