So these days I’m in a bit of a conundrum. 

There’s a bit of urgency to earn some money, now that gigs had all but disappeared since the 2 months of lockdown. So I’m going for random web design projects that don’t pay all that much, but at least it represents a non-zero inward flow. Even that little bit feels helpful for morale, at this point.

Yet on the other hand, I’m realising that in between the time to care for my newborn, head out to buy food, and eating/sleeping, I actually don’t have all that much time to work on my larger SaaS dreams on top of the web design gigs. That won’t work out in the longer term either, because the smaller gigs are unreliable and might dry up. Having a concrete plan for a SaaS product that pays regular monthly recurring revenue would work out better in the longer term.

So, should I grasp at small, immediate low-hanging fruits, or delay gratification for potentially bigger, longer-term wins?

I do still have some savings, so going for long term wins is not impossible. Only problem: how much can my savings hold out before a SaaS can bring in ramen-profitable income? From what I read in Indie Hackers/Twitter, some products take years. Yet, doing small gigs ain’t pushing the needle on money all that much, and feels more like ‘busy work’, something to just ease anxieties rather than effectively solving my money situation. Unless I can scale it up by volume. But that implies even lesser time on product.

Oftentimes it feels like I have to choose between the two approaches……but for real? Stepping back, is that necessarily an either/or, dichotomous choice?

What if I go for a Pareto 80:20 approach? Say, 80% of time on immediate wins, while setting aside 20% for longer term work? Or 70:30, 60:40? That feels like the most reasonable approach. Yet I wonder, in volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous times, do reasonable approaches work? Complex, chaotic systems need nonlinear solutions, not reasonable, rational, linear ones. How would a Trickster run this? What would a pirate do, as compared to the navy? What’s a nonlinear approach to solving this multi-headed Hydra conundrum?  

So, after all this verbose introspection in words, the best answer to my title question is: none of the above.

Win it all. Eat that low-hanging fruit, AND still win big long term. My solution’s params have been defined. 

Now, to find the actual solution……?