This concept has been on my mind as we plan our 2012 road map for When I Work. Call it Rework-esque or Lean Startup-ish. Leaving things out doesn’t mean ‘never including it’. So much of what we’ve left out has eventually made it in to our app. Usually, by leaving it out up front, its implementation is that much better when we do add it. The longer an idea has to marinate, the better—and I don’t use the word ‘marinate’ loosely. Over thinking muddles things up fast. Marinating is a slow soak that doesn’t get shocked with blunt force or extreme temperatures—AKA over complicating.
My main point is this: Just because leaving something out now may be the right decision, —it doesn’t mean adding it in later means you were wrong to leave it out in the first place.