Field Note #5: The Bakery

The best croissant in the world was once a mess of flour and butter.

Important work is like that.

We admire the finished thing—the book, the company, the website, the conversation, the decision.

We forget the bench covered in flour, the starts and stops, the wrong turns. The dough that looked hopeless until someone folded it one more time.

Most worthwhile projects spend far longer in the bakery than they do in the display case.

That's one reason why I like working beside people while things are still messy. That's where good work happens.