I’m finishing up a brilliant book right now by Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comics, about a term he calls “loserthink.”

In essence, it’s a way of thinking that keeps you in a bubble and has you miss out on the broader picture and a better understanding of what’s really happening. Many people, especially myself, are guilty of it.

I’ll save the overall impression for when I post the book review. One of the more interesting parts of the book comes when he talks about direction versus accuracy.

Let’s say you’re going to see a personal trainer who says that if you follow their program, you will gain X amount of muscle and lose Y amount of weight. You follow the program and you gain muscle you lose weight but it’s not the same numbers as what the trainer said.

Loserthink would have you suggest that because the accuracy of the claim is off that the trainer is a liar, awful or deceitful.

However, what you should really pay attention to is the direction at which you’ve gone–you’ve gained muscle, lost weight and are healthier. So the trainer did put you on the right track, but weren’t accurate with the results.

We have many examples of this in our world.

I look at this as something that I really need to incorporate into my life because I have a horrible habit of only committing to something unless the process will get me a 100% accurate outcome. In other words, I spend more time researching the best way instead of just moving in that direction.

Direction will always win over accuracy (unless you’re a mathematician calculating precision instruments that could save or kill an astronaut–then you want accuracy) because you can adjust the course as you go.

If the original accuracy is off, you can adjust. Your worldview isn’t shattered. You don’t have to fight against sunk costs. You can just pivot and move again.

In the world of making decisions, go for direction and then accuracy can be adjusted later.

I guess I was thinking about this years ago, when I wrote this article for Lifehack.

Ready, fire, aim.