Overthinking is the founder's biggest mistake: the midwit meme explained

Executive overview

Founders default to overthinking because they lack a boss, constraints, and certainty. This creates a "midwit" trap: knowing just enough to generate endless objections rather than acting.

The midwit meme shows that naive beginners and true experts converge on the same simple answer — while the partially informed get stuck in the middle, paralysed by hypotheticals.

The idiot approach and the genius approach are usually the same approach.

The midwit trap in practice

• The naive founder raises exactly what they need. The experienced founder does the same. The midwit debates signalling risk, allocation, and value-add investors for offers they don't yet have.
• On MVPs: the extremes are "build fast and ship". The midwit worries about reputation, press coordination, naming, and rebranding.
• On co-founders: the extremes are "work with someone you trust" or "pick the person obviously right for the job". The midwit constructs a spec requiring a level-7 Googler with 5–7 years experience, post-raise, found via a network they don't have.
• On YC applications: spending 30 minutes and submitting correlates with success. Spending months on strategy, alumni intros, and feedback rounds does not.
• On product-market fit: if you have time to wonder whether you have it, you don't. It hits you over the head.

The Elon Musk examples

• SpaceX: "Go to Russia. Buy rockets." Not a sophisticated strategy — just a direct action most people would rule out without trying.
• Tesla: "Electric cars are good." The midwit lists every failed prior attempt and infrastructure obstacle. Musk ignored them.
• The Boring Company: "Dig a hole to avoid traffic." Obvious, teenager-level idea. The midwit notes that bus systems exist and transport optimisation is complex. Musk drilled the tunnel.
• Pattern: the V1 idea is always simple-minded. Overthinkers rule it out before starting.

When to slow down: trapdoor decisions

• Legal issues — "I didn't know there was a law" is not a defence.
• Regulatory compliance — especially where licences or prohibitions apply.
• Health and well-being — measure twice, cut once. Do not move fast and loose with an online pharmacy.
• These are irreversible or high-stakes; most startup decisions are not.

The beginner's mind

• Not knowing anything is an advantage: you don't enumerate the reasons something is hard.
• Youth helps here — a 22-year-old assumes everything is figureoutable.
• Most successful startups started with silly, simple ideas. Witnessing this personally is the only reliable way to believe it.
• The question to ask: "What would an idiot do?" That's usually the right answer.
• Ask yourself before any decision: "Is this actually important?" If not, move on.