There's a common pattern in how people limit themselves. It goes something like this: "If I can't see exactly how I'm going to do it right now, then it probably isn't possible for me."

This belief treats your current capabilities as fixed constraints. It assumes that the skills, knowledge, and resources you have today are all you'll ever have. And it uses this assumption to close doors before you've even tried to walk through them.

There's an interesting lesson from the computing world that challenges this thinking.

Moore's Law

A Brief Explanation

In 1965, Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on a computer chip seemed to double approximately every two years. This observation became known as Moore's Law, and for decades, the computing industry has more or less followed it. Processing power has increased exponentially.

Here's the fascinating part: when engineers commit to this trajectory, they often don't know how they're going to achieve the next doubling. They know they will. They believe in the trajectory. But the specific innovations, techniques, and breakthroughs that will get them there are often unclear at the start.

I call this "functional stubbornness"—pursuing advancement despite uncertainty about methodology.

Computer engineers don't say "I can't see how we'll double processing power, so it probably won't happen." They say "We'll double it. We'll figure out how as we go."

The Human Equivalent

People commonly underestimate what they can achieve over longer timeframes. Ask someone what they can accomplish in two weeks, and they'll give you a reasonable answer. Ask them what they can accomplish in two years, and they'll often dramatically undershoot.

Why? Because they're imagining their future self with their current capabilities, not accounting for how much they'll learn and grow along the way.

Think about something you're skilled at now. Go back to before you had that skill. Could your earlier self have imagined exactly how you'd develop it? Probably not. The path wasn't clear until you walked it.

Opening to Possibility

Self-doubt often takes the form of demanding certainty before commitment. "Show me exactly how this will work, and then I'll try." But that's backwards. The how often only becomes clear through the doing.

What if you adopted Moore's Law optimism about your own development? What if you said "I will achieve this. I'll figure out how as I go"?

This isn't naive positivity. It's recognising that you're not static. You're capable of learning, adapting, and developing in ways your current self can't fully predict. The person who will solve the problem isn't the person you are now—it's the person you'll become through the process of trying.

The Practical Shift

Next time you catch yourself thinking "I don't know how I'd do that," try reframing it: "I don't know how I'd do that yet."

The engineers don't have all the answers at the start. They have direction. They have commitment. And they trust that capability follows pursuit.

You can do the same.