Make More Than You Need

 A factory makes 550 pairs of pants when the order is for 500.

Always.

They build in margin. Some pants will have defects. Some stitching won't be perfect. A few might get damaged in shipping.

If they make exactly 500, they can't fulfill the order. If they make 550, they can choose the best 500 and ship with confidence.

Overproduction isn't waste. It's how you guarantee quality.

I Used to Think Good Ideas Came One at a Time

I'd sit down to brainstorm and wait for the idea.

The right one. The perfect one. The one I'd actually use.

If I came up with three ideas, I'd pick one and move forward. Sometimes it worked. Usually it didn't.

Then I'd be stuck. Back to square one. Staring at a blank page trying to manufacture another perfect idea.

It never occurred to me that I was ordering exactly 500 pants with no margin for error.

You Can't Pick the Best Idea If You Only Have One

Here's what changed:

I started making 50 ideas when I needed 5.

For my novel, I brainstormed 30 possible chapter openings. Wrote the first paragraph of each. Then picked the 3 that actually worked.

I didn't waste time on the other 27. I created options so I could choose instead of settling.

Same with business. When I needed a product name, I generated 40 options in 20 minutes. Most were terrible. That's the point. The terrible ones made the good ones obvious.

I wasn't trying to be perfect 40 times. I was giving myself room to find the one that worked.

The Pattern Shows Up Everywhere

Writers know this instinctively with scenes.

You don't write one version of a difficult scene. You write three. Maybe five. Then you pick the one that fits.

Same with blog post titles. I write 10 headlines, knowing I'll use one. The other 9 aren't wasted—they helped me find the right one.

Photographers take 200 shots to get 10 good ones. That's not inefficiency. That's the process.

Even my morning routine. I tried 15 different ways to structure my first hour before I found the 2 that actually work for me.

I needed the 13 failures to recognize the 2 winners.

Permission to Overproduce

You're not supposed to nail it on the first try.

The first idea is rarely the best idea. It's just the first one that showed up.

Make more than you need. Give yourself options. Then choose.

Try This Today

Pick something you're working on. A scene, a business decision, a system design—anything.

Set a timer for 15 minutes.

Generate 20 versions. Quick, messy, no judgment. Just get 20 on the page.

You won't use 19 of them. That's fine. You're making 550 pants so you can ship the best 500.

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What would change if you always gave yourself 10x more options than you needed?