-Steve Jobs
Academics who have never worked in the real world have grand ideas. When someone implements their ideas, they fail.
Top Down
In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver visits a land ruled by people who live on a floating island. The capital is inhabited by theoretical scientists and mathematicians obsessed with abstract ideas. They are so focused on abstractions that they need attendants to hit them to remind them to listen or speak.
They say houses should be built top down, with the top floor being completed first. It’s “rational.” This doesn’t seem so bad if you know nothing about construction. But to anyone who understands the why behind how things are done, it’s clearly wrong. You need a foundation. The chapter satirizes academic endeavors detached from practical reality.
This is also true of government bureaucrats. They think people should operate and work in a particular way. Some even have grand ideas for how to reform government. Then, when people who operate at the highest levels in the real world do anything, they’re upset.
Why are they not getting everyone’s approval before acting? Why are they finding ways around the tens of thousands of rules? Operators are gonna operate. That’s a feature, not a bug of operators.
On the other end, those in the private sector find it amusing that government bureaucrats are upset about having to send a message every week stating what they've accomplished. It’s the weakest, easiest performance review of all time, and they’re whining about it. Their whining says: They don’t expect to be held accountable for their actions.
Operating
Those who “do” have little respect for those who “don’t do.” And vice versa. Those who “do” say, “if you can’t do, you teach.” Those who don’t “do” think each person is a replaceable cog in a machine. They’re both flawed.
Believing all business success is a lucky decision made from the top lacks understanding. Even if that were true (it’s rarely true), but let’s say it is. Who recruited the team? Who made sure the team was accountable? How was the team incentivized for success? What processes were put in place? What did the team do when management wasn’t looking? Where did that culture come from?
When doing great, complicated things, leadership needs to be top tier. Few people are capable of executing at the highest level. If it’s easy, everyone would do it.
Building Philosophy
Building shapes your worldview to be practical. While building, you’re forced to see at least part of what the real world entails.
Before getting theoretical, you first need to experience what life has to offer, as my late mentor said:
If you want to be a real yogi— stay in the city with all the distractions. Learn all the distractions and how to defeat the distractions. Ok, now you’re safe to go to the woods.
You shouldn’t be a film critic until you’ve made a film. You shouldn’t be a journalist until you've operated in the area you’re writing about. Say you’re writing about the government procurement process– have you applied for a government contract and gone through the procurement process yourself? If not, find someone who has and let them write, and you can edit. But it’s not the uninformed party who should write.
Only those who have lived and experienced the world have a deep understanding. Knowledge is knowing. Wisdom is doing.
Challenge
My old business partner lived in Africa with his wife for over half a decade. They ran non-profits and built businesses that empowered communities. He was at a dinner with some of the wealthiest philanthropists and renowned experts who were debating philanthropy in Africa.
After an hour of listening, he could tell they had no idea what they were talking about. He stopped one of the ivory tower experts and asked the table if anyone there had lived in Africa for a month. Not one. He said he’d happily take them there and show them around. Many nodded, but of course, no one accepted his offer.
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
— Marcus Aurelius
Douglas Murray was attacked for his comment during his debate with Dave Smith, asking, “Have you been there?” Smith was making assertive statements about the war in Gaza and what was happening. Murray knew everything Smith said was either false or criminally misleading. So Murray finally asked if Smith had been there. Smith hadn’t. People who professionally have opinions and don’t do, ridiculed Murray’s attack and said it was unfair. Shocker.
When third parties have a flawed understanding of what they confidently express opinions about, the world is distorted.
Conclusion
Builders know accountability is not optional. If you build a bridge incorrectly, people die. If you build a business poorly, employees lose their jobs, and families suffer. Mistakes cost something real.
Those who don’t build rarely understand the consequences in tangible terms. They believe in infinite second chances and endless theoretical solutions. Reality doesn’t afford such luxuries. Reality demands results.
This is why building matters. It grounds us in reality. It strips away nonsense. Theory dissolves the moment you lay your first brick or hire your first employee. Decisions become practical, not ideological. You learn to value what works over what sounds good.
Builders have always known this. They know it’s easy to critique from the sidelines, harder to build something yourself. They’ve learned respect isn’t given—it’s earned. So they trust those who’ve walked through fire over those who’ve read about it. They prefer the scars of experience over the smooth hands of theory.
The world is built by those willing to get their hands dirty, those willing to fail, and then try again. They know that the real measure of knowledge isn’t degrees earned or articles published. It’s what you’ve built, what you’ve achieved, what you’ve endured.
Everything else is just noise.