Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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“Strong Opinions, Weakly Held” is a well-known mantra in tech, intended to quickly guide teams to reasonable predictions. But many have beef with SOWH - might there be a better method?


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-Links for the Curious-


“Strong Opinions, Weakly Held,” by Paul Saffo - saffo.com/02008/07/26/strong-opinions-weakly-held


Words of Estimative Probability (Kent, 1964) - cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP93T01132R000100020036-3.pdf


“Strong Opinions, Weakly Held,” by Bob Sutton - bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/strong_opinions.html



“Strong Opinions, Weakly Held,” by Jeff Atwood - blog.codinghorror.com/strong-opinions-weakly-held


“Strong Opinions Loosely Held Might be the Worst Idea in Tech,” by Michael Natkin - blog.glowforge.com/strong-opinions-loosely-held-might-be-the-worst-idea-in-tech


“‘Strong Opinions, Weakly Held’ Doesn't Work That Well,” by Cedric Chin - commoncog.com/blog/strong-opinions-weakly-held-is-bad


“Bad Entrepreneurial Cliches: Strong Opinions Loosely Held,” by Brad Feld - feld.com/archives/2019/05/bad-entrepreneurial-cliches-strong-opinions-loosely-held.html