Plans distinguish goals from wishes.

I love Antoine de Saint Exupéry 's work, especially "Wind, Sand and Stars".

I'm less enamored of plans.  

The ACT of planning is necessary; the resulting plan itself is usually worthless... and more often can be worse than worthless by obstructing, obfuscating and distracting from what matters most in any endeavor--applicably talented people:  

Also, by definition, plans, once anointed, take up the throne in the Palace of Foregone Conclusions and vigorously act as the enemy of any interloping innovations. 

As Robbie Burns wrote "To A Mouse..." c 1785:

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"But little Mouse, you are not alone,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!"

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But then again I'm not designing semiconductors nor writing code... I'm in the business of innovation and living life as if it's a poem.  

And acting as if that's completely normal.

But you do think it's good to think things through, even if you don't have every minute detail planned?

Ok yeah, as a safe general rule of thumb perhaps for beginners and intermediate practitioners...but that's not how I typically roll.  Probably why I'm not a better writer.  

For me, thinking about anything expected to get done depends upon how well aligned I am across three capabilities:

1. my felt intentions 

2. wherever I happen to be with my own readiness

3. shared outcome expectations with any implicated others and forces needed to get things done.  

The greater the above alignment, the greater the complexities and achievements I can handle and deliver intuitively, by myself and with others, without thinking things through or planning to do them.  And vice versa.  

Some caveats as to why I roll this way:

1. Thinking things through can easily distort and displace my felt intentions, or my intuition--second guessing myself is death to effective execution and all fun.

2. Feeling clarity is more important to me than type of feeling (e.g. happy, angry, etc.) and I've found I'm much more effective when I have a clearly distinct and felt feeling about doing something than when I don't.

3. If when I clearly feel a certain way I still can't cancel and replace that feeling with another type of feeling at similar levels of intensity (e.g. feel a dead serious moment as an hilarious one, feel anger as love, or vice versa) about any given undertaking then I know I'm adventuring half-blind--I'm set up to get a life lesson and it's likely to hurt.  Ouch!

I do step away and think things through, but only when I'm unable to freely cycle and orientate my felt sense about circumstances at hand and I'm obligated to do something.  Otherwise I just move on to whatever else interests me at the moment.  

I'm basically a five year old...

Beginner's mind!

Still, thinking out possibilities helps prepare us mentally for the best case and the worst case.

True... 

...and also as Yoda said,