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[new thread] @naval talks about 4 types of leverage - code, media, people, and financial capitalI believe there's a 5th type that’s immediately available to almost everyone, that's under discussed - read on
An example: CPUs can be “pointed” at different problems. i.e. a given CPU could be crunching through a genome to try & solve cancer, or it could be training on hotdog/no hotdog.
The thing to note is the total effort is ~the same, regardless of which problem the CPU solving.
The thing to note is the total effort is ~the same, regardless of which problem the CPU solving.
I think our minds & attention work in a similar way.
Our brains are going to be working on whatever problem we throw at them - whether that’s something trivial (“my neighbor isn’t keeping up their yard”) or profound (say, solving climate change).
Our brains are going to be working on whatever problem we throw at them - whether that’s something trivial (“my neighbor isn’t keeping up their yard”) or profound (say, solving climate change).
The 5th type of leverage is the size of the problems you think about.
We can point our attention at big problems or we can point them at small ones.
We can point our attention at big problems or we can point them at small ones.
I like to call this Worrying Up - choosing to focus your brain on the biggest problems you can personally grapple with.
To use an extreme example take someone like Jeff Bezos - there's entire categories of problems that, if they happened to many of us (“we just lost a $10m contract!”) would shake our worlds.
But for him I’d be surprised if he even knew his $10m customers off the top of his head.
But for him I’d be surprised if he even knew his $10m customers off the top of his head.
He’s thinking at such a higher level - should Amazon do a new product? What does Amazon need to do to thrive in the next 10 years? - that there’s just entire categories of worry & anxiety that his brain doesn’t work on.
He’s Worrying Up at the highest levels possible.
Of course much of that for Bezos is enabled by having the other 4 forms of leverage. He's at the tippity top of the hierarchy of needs
You can't just jump to worrying about the biggest problems immediately - which is why you need to move up in steps.
You can't just jump to worrying about the biggest problems immediately - which is why you need to move up in steps.
You usually don’t get access to those forms of leverage unless you’re thinking about the next biggest problem you can solve.
Obviously not everyone who asks gets financial or human capital - but the first step is having a big problem worth solving.
Obviously not everyone who asks gets financial or human capital - but the first step is having a big problem worth solving.
Your brain is gonna try to solve whatever you’re thinking about - so consider picking the biggest problem you can & start moving up the ladder. /end
