Ideas matter, but they do not matter as much as intellectuals and [market strategists] think they do. What matters far more is [project craft], which is about sensing, adjusting, exploiting, and doing rather than planning and theorizing.It is the skill of judo player who may have plans but who important characteristic is agility.
It is what philosopher Isaiah Berlin called "understanding rather than knowledge", the ability to "tell what fits with what: what can be done given the circumstances and what cannot, what means will work in what situation and how far"From an essay by Eliot A. Cohen
Cohen's idea more or less aligns with the oft quoted concept that the first casuality of real work or activity is plans. Which is not to say plans are without value, it's just that their value has a limit, and thereafter comes "sensing, adjusting, exploiting, and doing".
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