What Ben Kuhn thinks about ideas vs execution

@ben-kuhn · 23 positions · On ppll ↗

Software engineer and writer; former CTO of Wave, now at Anthropic. Blogs at benkuhn.net on attention, engineering management and doing hard things well.

Ben Kuhn did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

Filter ideas vs execution · Newest first

Topic

All 23management 13ideas vs execution 2ambition 1America 1behavioural science 1developer tools 1hiring 1infrastructure 1mental models 1

7 more topics

optimism 1patience 1social media 1software quality 1taste 1team size 1writing 1

Sort

NewestOldest

Only Ben Kuhn on ideas vs execution. See everyone on ideas vs execution

2 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Ben Kuhn has said — not written or endorsed by them.

2 positions so far — this page is not yet offered to search engines.

1. 19 Apr 2025

   Our readingPeople who can reliably make outcomes happen without oversight are rare and are the real bottleneck on how much an organization can take on at once.

   Their wordsPeople who can be trusted to make something inevitable are really rare, and are typically the bottleneck for how many different things a team or company can do at once.

   ↗Impact, agency, and tastebenkuhn.net 2nd of 3 in this piece

2. 5 weeks earlier

3. 16 Mar 2025

   Our readingA slower project aimed at the right goal beats a faster one aimed at the wrong goal.

   Their words"Direction is more important than magnitude"-it's usually better to have a lower-velocity project that works on the right things, than a higher-velocity one that's pointed at the wrong goal.

   ↗How I've run major projectsbenkuhn.net 3rd of 3 in this piece