A Technical Founders' Guide to Elegantly Escaping the Rabbit Hole

Technical founders live in a challenging environment. It is not uncommon - and quite the case - that they roll up their sleeves to do technical work. But then comes the flow moment, where things are progressing, although not working. It's coding, testing, discovering, debugging - when things start to be ugly but promising.

The complication is that we can be lost, right there, inside the rabbit hole. Our objectives and key results tell us to come back, sure. But no sir, we still believe in the idea that we can let our lovely developer dig a bit more - we are almost there.

How do you escape that moment? That moment of flow that creates a magical illusion that it is correct to continue at the expense of other activities?

The complication becomes more complicated because you don't know if you should escape or not. You believe that you are about to complete at any time soon.

When facing these moments, where learning, discovery, flow, traction, and loss are part of the equation, you can do something. Pause to write up on what is going on, pause to write a well-written memo on what is happening, pause to ask for help - and do this part with quality.

With an excellent write-up on what is going on, with challenges written and help needed areas, you can understand what is happening and even use your writing to get real help!