We crave machinery because it is order incarnate: it is well-defined and the thing it makes is well-defined. There's no mess. But sometimes we have to make a mess first. When we're starting a project we must ask ourselves: Should the energy be to build the mine, or to search for gold?

And by the way, it's just as bad to ignore machinery as it is to build it too early. Maybe all startup/growth phases are about is knowing when (or not) to build the mine.

Inspired by Flo Crivello's article via TLDR.