Idea Fidelity
Execution is an idea at its highest fidelity
It is a somewhat common tendency to classify ideas and execution as separate things. As long as someone has an idea, then the rest is “just execution”. Similarly, there’s an opposing view that execution is all that matters and ideas are simply words.
I would offer a different view point. I think ideas and execution are actually just different fidelities of the same thing. If you’ve ever tried to make something of your own imagination, you know that the distinctions between “idea” and “execution” are not so simple.
Let’s try a simple thought exercise where we construct something from imagination.
Think of a story you loved, but the ending just didn’t quite fit. What would have made it better? Perhaps the hero should have died; perhaps it shouldn’t have been so hurried; perhaps it needed a little more finality. You can probably articulate a general direction — but how exactly would you have rewritten it? If you really obtained the power to finish the story the way it should have been, could you actually generate the ideas to the utmost level of fidelity — every word, every scene, every setup — the way you wanted it?
For most of us, the answer is usually no. Because you don’t have the ideas down to that level of detail. You know there’s a forest, but you can’t imagine the trees, the rocks, the dirt that make it up. Your idea is at the lowest level of fidelity; it’s blurry and pixelated like the picture below.
Now, let’s say you actually have to do it. You literally write the words. You direct the scenes. You define every move. To bring your concept to reality, you must articulate the ideas in a way that that faces trade-offs, restricted boundaries, and hard edges. Every single detail must be constructed. Like the picture below, you must dramatically increase the fidelity.
If you look between these two pictures, can you see the difference? They are both lights, but they are dramatically different. You can imagine multiple possibilities with the first picture. In the second picture, you see exactly what it is. This dramatic difference in fidelity eliminates the ambiguity and enforces a singular reality. Yet — they share a common definition, for they are both lights.
Just like the story you had to rewrite, you had to convert your general direction into an actual new interpretation. You had to bring your idea into its highest fidelity. That entire transformation and act is execution.