Directionally Correct
What evidence can teach us - and what it never will
Publishing Date: February 8, 2026
The First Draft explores systems, institutions, technology, and the human realities of living inside them. Essays, field notes, and practical frameworks from the intersection of work, identity, and change.
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This essay belongs to the 1 - When the ground keeps moving pathway.
“Cats don’t need names. They know who they are.”
- Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Said Cheese
I used to think education was the key that unlocked everything. That somewhere, buried in a course or a piece of writing, there was a secret bit of knowledge that would make me feel prepared, and like I finally understood how life worked.
I’m deeply grateful for my education and for every opportunity it has brought. However, I understand now that what we do with the knowledge we receive matters far more than anything printed between the covers of a book.
After hundreds of conversations with students, colleagues, and peers, I’ve realized most of us are trying to learn something that can’t be taught: that we already carry more wisdom inside us than we’re willing to trust.
No one knows what’s right for you more than you do. No one knows what your path is supposed to look like more than you.
When I started my company, I wanted certainty. I did surveys, read everything I could, and tried to map out the perfect direction. I believed - and still do - that customers hold the key to great products and services. Understanding how they see the world, where their pain points are, and what they’ve already tried to solve - that’s the heart of good business.
But what I learned too late was to trust my instincts.
I now teach people to listen widely, speak broadly, and look for patterns. To act like scientists: form hypotheses, collect anecdotes, study the signals that point toward the next step. I talk about being “directionally correct” more than “directionally incorrect,” using the data to chart a path.
When it comes to our own lives, being directionally correct comes from somewhere deeper. It’s not in the data. It’s in the quiet inner knowing we all have about what feels more right - or less wrong - for us.
That’s the compass that leads us to the next right step.
Note: I am a strong proponent of evidence-based education; however, I believe we do a disservice in education by teaching students to override their instincts entirely and assume there is a “correct life path” to follow. In an increasingly chaotic world, learning is more critical than ever, but so is adaptive response, given the impossibility of fully knowing what will come next. Self-trust in many moments provides more value than anything we can teach in a classroom.
Next Step: A Way to Practice This in Your Life
Quiet Calibration:
Set a timer for five minutes. Write the answer to one question: What do I already know about this situation that I keep discounting? Stop when the timer ends.
Directional Check-In:
Think of one decision you are circling. Without solving it, name what would feel slightly more right and what would feel slightly less wrong. Notice which one your body leans toward.
Signal Noticing Practice:
Over the next week, jot down moments when something feels aligned or misaligned. Do not analyze them. Just collect them as data points.
Sense-Making Map:
On a blank page, place yourself in the center. Around you, sketch the forces shaping your current direction: obligations, desires, constraints, curiosities. Look for patterns rather than answers.
PS: If you want to support this work: restack it, share it, or drop a quick comment. It helps more than you’d think, and it keeps me writing and helping other changemakers. (This one’s public—feel free to send it on.)
Further Reading & Context
I share books and sources here because I think the legacies people work from matter, and because good writing deserves a longer conversation than one essay can hold. Some of these informed this piece directly. Others are invitations to go deeper into the territory it opens. You can browse my full reading list, organized by theme to see the broader intellectual foundation this newsletter draws from.
Some links below are Amazon.ca affiliate links. I also include Chapters Indigo, Kobo, and WorldCat so you can support a Canadian bookseller or find it at your library instead. I earn a small commission if you buy through affiliate links at no extra cost to you.
Duke, Annie, Thinking in Bets (2018). On decision-making without guarantees.
Polanyi, Michael, Personal Knowledge (1958). On tacit knowing and judgment.
Popova, Maria, Figuring (2019). Essays on intuition, science, and the inner life.
Schön, Donald, The Reflective Practitioner (1983). On learning through action and reflection rather than certainty.
Weick, Karl, Sensemaking in Organizations (1995). How people construct meaning under uncertainty.
Wheatley, Margaret, Leadership and the New Science (1992). A systems view of order, chaos, and self-organization.