Not a lack of power, but feeling as though we have none. Some people have been indoctrinated to prefer a life with no agency, as it also brings no responsibility. At the other extreme, some folks have decided that they have more power than they actually do.

Video games offer people a chance to experience virtual power–an opportunity to feel a lack of powerlessness. Click the mouse, something happens–power is in your grasp. By giving players agency, the games allow users to feel something they might be avoiding in real life.

Everyone is on a spectrum. No one has absolute power, and no one is powerless. But our expectation and experience of power is always a choice.

Choosing the attitude of powerlessness is self-defeating as well as self-negating. The fact that the attitude can be chosen is in itself a form of power. We can find control over our attitude and our actions, gaining priceless power as we do.

No one can change everything, but everyone can change something. If you choose to live a life with impact, it’s in your control to do so.

On the factory floor, productivity increases are relentlessly implemented, often without regard for worker satisfaction.

For people working with a laptop, though, they are often seen as optional lifestyle choices instead of ways to significantly boost how much we can get done–and the satisfaction that comes with time we control.

If you work on your own, your productivity choices are up to you. But when you involve others in your project, the default should be to honor the habits of the most productive member of the team.

Here are some proven ways to save hours of wasted time. You’re probably doing many of them, but they’re still treated as options by many. In rough order of importance:

• Don’t invite someone to a meeting if an email or 1:1 conversation will do the job just as well.
• Don’t fly if you can show up virtually and get the job done.
• Instead of asking a group of people when a good time to meet might be, use a doodle.
• Send a calendar invite when you book a time.
• When you get stuck, first ask Claude, then ask a human.
• Show up on time. Leave when the work is done.
• Default to using shared docs (like Google docs) for any collaborative work.
• For repeated tasks, make a checklist. Update it and share it as you go.
• Respect synchronized time. If you can put it in a video instead of saying it live, please do.

We’ve all seen well-meaning people disregard all of these points in a single interaction. Multiply that by the number of people involved and you’re in a time swamp.

Technical debt is easy to incur. It’s unnecessary added features, undocumented code, support for outmoded interactions and anything that slows down your ability to update and upgrade your work. Tech debt is the combination of doing what feels right at the time, in a hurry, and then having to maintain it and understand it going forward.

Vibe coding, which is a rising trend, pairs a human programmer with an AI like chatGPT. The AI is doing most of what a human used to do, and generating far more lines of code per hour than a person might. The problem is that often, no one knows exactly how the code works, which means it’s going to be difficult to fix when it breaks or needs an upgrade.

And as AI starts to create data sets (by reviewing, for example, response rates to emails or designs), those data sets are going to be so multi-dimensional that only an AI will be able to make sense of them.

The end result will be as the end result often is–the first one now will later be last. The shortcuts might not be the best way to get to where you’re going.

Get the system architecture right first. Document it, streamline it and test it. Then divide the components into small pieces and let AI finish the work. Fixing a defective brick is far more cost effective than re-architecting an entire building.

Sometimes, in the absence of data or useful experience, we’re left to act on our instincts.

It’s worth noting that other people have instincts as well.

And in a given situation, their instincts might prove to be as right as often as ours.

Just because it’s your instinct doesn’t mean it’s the best instinct.

When in doubt, seek reality and useful experience instead.

A solid work ethic drives someone to show up, even when they’d rather not. If there’s work on their desk, they’ll take it on.

Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to say ‘no’ to free up focus and resources for the work that’s worth saying ‘yes’ to.

If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result.

Until the world changes.

Even the tiniest shift in the system will render your memorization useless.

On the other hand, if you understand the concept, you’ll be able to produce the steps whenever you need them.

Teachers and organizations benefit from both, but they’re not the same.

Engagement is the delight we have when we lean into the process. Engagement happens when social media is optimized for maximum focus, and it also can be seen in a student who’s in sync with a teacher who cares.

Enrollment is a commitment to change. Enrollment in the process means we’re willing to push through the difficult parts because the outcome is part of our goal.

Obviously, they overlap, quite a bit. And one of the best ways to get one is to have the other.

True transformation requires enrollment, even if it doesn’t always promise engagement.

It’s hard to build a house without a hammer.

The hammer has been around for a long time, and thanks to its intuitive design, a user can get 70% of the benefit after less than ten minutes of instruction. People who depend on hammers for their livelihood are probably at over 95% efficiency.

In the last decade, we’ve outfitted billions of people with tools that didn’t exist until recently. And because of market pressure, the design of these tools is very different.

They generally deliver a fraction of their potential productivity when used casually.

We’ve adopted the mindset of Too Busy To Learn. As a result, we prefer tools that give us quick results, not the ones that are worth learning. This ignores the truth of a great modern professional’s tool: it’s complicated for a reason.

Some tools, like Discord, are optimized for informal poking and casual use. As a result, more nuanced and sophisticated (and powerful) tools like Discourse are harder to sell to new users.

Surfing doesn’t have many participants, because it takes a long time to get good enough at surfing to have fun. Pickleball, on the other hand, rewards casual first-timers.

That’s fine for a hobby, but when we spend our days hassling with our tools, it’s a problem.

As a result of this cycle of Too Busy To Learn, we end up spending our days using software incorrectly and creating frustration. We blame the tools instead of learning to use them.

Don’t hold the hammer at the wrong end. And insist on software that’s worth the time it takes to learn.

Most important, once you find software that’s worth the time to learn, learn it.

Efficiency + Convenience.

Not everything is industrialized. A backyard garden, a freelance editor, even a chef with a hands-on restaurant. These folks are building a practice and producing value, but they haven’t embraced industrialization.

That happens when management steps in, productizes, routinizes and optimizes.

Industrialization produces huge gains in productivity, but it’s also a bit brittle and takes some of the humanity away from the work.

Efficiency first.

And then, convenience. Making it convenient to sub in new parts or new workers. Making it convenient to work with vendors and customers. Any color you want, as long as its black.

Industrialism produces its own rewards, but at the cost of flexibility and side effects.

If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out?

What if it’s 17?

If you’re giving a talk explaining your strategy to four people, does it feel like a high-risk event? What if it’s 54?

How many more people are required before it flips to stressful? Because the last person is just one person.

If you’re performing in an auditorium, there are still only thirty people you can see from the stage.

N + 1 is just 1 more.