My notes on reading the overview linked in the parent.

Principles of Effectuation:

- Start with your means - possibilities originate from my means

- Focus on the downside risk - what can I afford to lose at each step?

- Leverage contingencies - surprises/"bad" news are clues to new markets (pivot)

- Form partnerships - early pre-commitments from stakeholders for venture co-creation

- Control vs. predict - focus on activities in my control, not predictions

Effectuation process for building new products, markets, and firms:

1. Means: who am I, what I know, whom I know

2. Goals: what can I do?

- Pursue goals within affordable loss

- Leverage surprises - may add to Means and change Goals

3. Interactions: interact with people, enlist co-creation to change original idea

4. Commitments: gather stakeholder/customer commitments to co-created/morphed idea

- New means - new resources add to Means

- New goals - new commitments help crystallize the Goals

I clicked though multiple pages and came away empty.

Just seems to be a cacophony of clipart and banal assertions. I feel I am being sold something. It feels like the power-point a "consultant" would use to train you in a certification in entrepreneurship...

It's interesting that this concept has been submitted a few times to no discussion. Not even to say it's BS, which is weird for HN.

I posted it, without my opinion. You responded without providing your opinion, also. :)

I take most of this literature skeptically and I haven't had a chance to dive into this site much. But if the five things in the article are actionable and they work, it could be useful.

I like this. But I would never learn that I like it from that main page you linked - it's completely content free (unless you know it already, then you can find some stuff there), its only pointer to more (a button!) leads to no extra content, and it is not clear at all where to go from there.

That overview, by the other side, is very interesting.