I remember the exact moment I realized that the way I was thinking about courage was all wrong.

It was back in my university days. I’m out at the local university pub with some friends including a friend-of-a-friend named Joe. Cheap beer, good music and a great university pub vibe…a night full of potential (and ending with poutine at 2 a.m. in a place that should have lost it’s liquor license years ago). Joe’s a good looking guy — tall, dark hair, athletic build and he’s got a natural charisma about him. Confident but not overdoing it. Joe spots an attractive girl on the other side of the room chatting with her friends. Without hesitation he gets up, walks over and starts talking to her. She looks up, smiles. They start talking. The rest of us watch in awe. I remember thinking to myself “I could never do that” — which is code for “I’m going to stand here clutching my beer like it's a safety blanket instead.”

My friend — the one who invited Joe — leans over and tells me something that changes how I think about courage forever. It turns out that Joe has a rule. When he goes out to a bar he finds the prettiest girl in the room and he goes to talk to her, no matter what. Joe’s reasoning is that one day the woman of his dreams is going to be on the other side of the bar and he wants to make sure that in that moment he has the courage to go up and talk to her. My mind is blown. It makes so much sense — and yet so hard to do.

Joe later confesses to me that he still feels nervous every time and when he gets rejected it stings. But he sticks to his rule because he can picture in his head that critical moment when he’ll need that courage. Every time he approaches a girl — each a rep — he's building the capacity to act through fear. While others wait around hoping to magically become "more confident" (guilty as charged) Joe's putting in the reps.

The Essential Insight

In order to do extraordinary things most people focus on the obvious: put in the hard work and develop your skills. Then great things will happen, right? The uncomfortable truth is that hard work and skill are not enough. That'll get you above average results - sure. But to do the extraordinary? You need something that’s in much shorter supply…

You need courage. The courage to act even when your emotions are telling you to run for the door.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

- Anais Nin

Think about it. That blog post you've been "polishing" for weeks? It's not about the writing anymore — it's about the fear of putting yourself out there. That app idea you can't stop thinking about? The code isn't what's holding you back — it's the fear of launching something that might fail. That person you want to reach out to for advice? You're afraid they'll reject you.

To do extraordinary things, you must seize opportunities before you feel ready. You have to make things happen. Yes, the prediction engine in your brain will go into full-on disaster mode, sketching out elaborate blueprints for every possible way things could go wrong. But that ability to act despite those feelings is what separates the extraordinary from the merely above average.

Is that you? Are you the person out there taking your shot? Or are you the one still perfecting your swing?

Courage as the Differentiator

It’s 2020. Danny Postma had just hit “send” on a cold email to Greg Brockman, the CEO of OpenAI, asking for access to a private tool called GPT3. Danny, a Dutch coder living the nomadic lifestyle in Bali, was making solid money…tens of thousands per year with his marketing headline generator “Headlime”. But getting access to GPT3 could transform it.

Danny hears the “ding” and sees that it’s a reply from Greg. His heart racing, Danny braces for rejection — but it’s a yes! He immediately gets to work building GPT3 into Headlime which makes it much more valuable and it quickly goes viral. In February 2021 Danny sells it for a life-changing 7-figures.

One key moment of courage — sending that cold email — turned a decent idea into a life-changing exit.

When we act with courage we expand our “luck surface area”. Each courageous act is like a lottery ticket — a chance to get lucky. That email Danny sent to Greg Brockman was a lottery ticket. Did he get lucky? Hell, yeah. But that’s the whole point — when you courageously put yourself out there you get more chances to be lucky.

Patrick Collison is another great example of this. At 13, this brilliant Irish teenager has the courage to reach out to Paul Graham about their shared interest in an obscure programming language called Lisp. Fast forward three years and another act of courage: asking Paul to meet for coffee in Boston. That coffee leads to dinner at Paul’s house with MIT professor Robert T. Morris and Aaron Swartz (who would later co-found Reddit). These meetings are formative to young Patrick encouraging him to think big. A few years later Patrick and his brother John start Stripe (through Paul Graham’s Y Combinator) which goes on to become a unicorn-level success — now worth $65B.

One act of courage leading to connections — an expanded luck surface area. Those connections leading to opportunities, guidance and inspiration. All of that leading to Stripe — a company that’s now enabled millions of small businesses to process payments online.

How do we develop that courage? Is it something you’re just born with — you’ve got it or you don’t? Many think that’s the case but it’s not true. Courage can be systematically developed. Think back to Joe…he exposed himself over and over to the chance of being rejected. Each was a rep that strengthened his capacity for courage….and he’s not the only one…

The Solution: Repeated Exposure

It’s early 2021. Kariza Santos posts a video “Why I’m Starting to Document My Life”. In that video Riza, as she’s known, launches a new chapter in her life triggered by an existential moment of questioning. She’d received a CD from a childhood friend full of old photos. Despite being a film maker, Riza realized she wasn’t capturing the moments of her life that mattered — from the big events to the everyday and mundane. And, more than that, she was living life small. Riza makes a courageous decision — to be the main character in her life. She had always wanted to be a YouTuber and had posted a video here and there. But, this time was different. She was going all-in.

“What we fear doing most is usually what we need to do.”

— Tim Ferriss

Riza starts a vlog capturing snapshots of her life. Each video was an act of courage both for the fact that she was documenting her life with vulnerability and also because she was going all-in on this as “her thing”. Each video was a rep — each requiring her to face her doubts.

At the start of the journey Riza had 7K subscribers. A year later 700K — her channel exploding as the world discovered Riza’s unique cinematic talent and commitment to living fully. Riza is a prime example of someone who has expressed courage over and over again to do something extraordinary. Each video a rep building her up to what she is today.

Riza, Danny, Joe — all of them, as Brené Brown notes forging their courage through action:

Courage is like—it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: You get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.

― Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

This strategy of repeated exposure is something that many world-class performers figured out intuitively.

Early in Jerry Seinfeld’s career he had severe anxiety and stage fright. His solution was to book multiple shows per night to build up his tolerance. Today, his stage presence is legendary.

Warren Buffett had similar problems. Speaking was his greatest fear - he'd choose college classes based on whether he'd have to speak or not. "I would get physically ill if I even thought about having to do it."

Buffett knew this fear was holding him back so he signed up for a Dale Carnegie speaking course and then volunteered to teach at the University of Omaha, forcing himself to get up in front of people again and again. While others avoided public speaking whenever possible, Buffett deliberately sought it out. Today? He's one of the most compelling speakers in business.

This idea of repeated exposure, and more precisely progressive repeated exposure, to build our ‘courage capacity’ is backed up by science. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum took 60 people who were afraid of both spiders and heights. Half the group got spider exposure therapy while half did nothing. The exposure therapy progressed each person through different levels of exposure. Level one was looking at a spider from five feet away. Level 14 was letting a spider walk on their hand. Each person was walked up this escalating ladder until they either got all the way to the end or two hours had passed. (Is this study still running? I’ve got a couple of kids I’d like to sign up).

The fascinating part? For the group that did the exposure therapy not only did their fear of spiders drop dramatically, but their fear of heights improved too — even though they never worked on it. The courage they built in one domain transferred to another.

This study shows that we can build courage in the same way we build bigger biceps: progressive overload. That is, lifting progressively heavier weights over time. Why does this work for building our courage capacity? I think there’s three reasons why:

1. We get used to the feelings of fear and uncertainty. The feelings don’t go away but they lose their debilitating edge.

2. We get used to failure and loss. When Joe got rejected by a girl it stung. But an hour later he realized that he’s okay — the failure wasn’t fatal. In fact, he interpreted it as a sign that he was moving closer to the girl of his dreams.

3. We get skilled at being courageous. We learn how to talk to ourself, how to shift our attention, and how to reframe our feelings.

Building Your Courage Practice

Let's take a moment to catch up on where we're at. First, we've covered why courage is the fundamental ingredient to extraordinary success. The success of Joe, Riza, Patrick, Danny, Seinfeld and Buffett all hinging on their ability to summon courage when they need it. And we've seen that courage can be systematically built through a process of repeated exposure.

So, how do we build up our own practice of repeated exposure? There’s three keys to making this work.

First, start small and progressively build up. What matters most is getting lots of reps in.

Second, treat this like a serious project, not a casual experiment. Don't just try it once or twice and then forget about it. The stakes are too high. This is something you must do if you want to do the extraordinary.

Finally, redefine what success means. When a rep leads to failure, whether it be rejection or embarrassment, be okay with that. Of course, this is easier said than done. We've all had some moment in high school where we were embarrassed — like when we tripped and got back up at super-human speeds. (To this day I swear that tile was intentionally moved). Those experiences get seared into our brains. But you know what? You're bigger than that now. You can handle it.

The fact of the matter is that when you do courageous things sometimes it's going to go badly. But, you have to keep reminding yourself that the rep itself is the win. It’s the reps that will transform you…as long as you don’t let failure stop you from continuing.

I challenge you: take a moment and think of one thing you could do today…preferably in the next hour…that would make you feel uncomfortable. Then go do it. Get this practice going.

The Stakes are High

As a kid, I lived and breathed baseball. I was pretty good too. I could field and throw with the best of them. But I had one fatal flaw: when I moved up to the level where kids were pitching with real velocity but questionable accuracy I was afraid of the ball. My response? I'd close my eyes. Pretty dumb strategy really. If the pitch is coming right at me I’m not going to see it and I’m going to take it in the ribs. My batting average? I don’t know the number but I do know that I had exactly one hit. One. And that was an accident — I was so surprised it took me a few seconds to realize I should run. That was my last year of playing baseball.

That fear - that instinct to close my eyes - cost me something I loved. But we all do this same thing now. We close our eyes to opportunities because we're afraid of getting hit. We tell ourselves 'someday I'll…’. or ‘I could if…’.

When we summon the courage to act, everything changes. Those ideas trapped in our heads get unleashed, turning potential energy into kinetic force. Each courageous action expands our luck surface area, creating connections and opportunities we couldn't see before.

You build that courage through repeated exposure. Joe approached the prettiest girl in the room as a rule so he’d be ready for that critical moment when the woman of his dreams was across that room (spoiler: he was ready). Each rep rewriting his story and building his courage capacity.

It’s your turn. The fact that it’s difficult is an opportunity. While others wait to feel ready, you’re out there systematically building your courage. The courage that turns potential into reality. The courage that builds a luck surface area so large that opportunities start coming in from every angle.

Don't close your eyes. Face the pitch head on and take a swing.

Ideas are valuable. Sure, ideas without execution are worth nothing. But a good idea is at the core of most successful projects. As an engineer working in advanced technology groups our whole business rested on the quality of our ideas. So, that’s why it’s so important to me that we establish an Idea Engine — a practice of generating ideas every day (I described that in this article here: The Idea Engine).

In this article we’re going to super-charge that practice with four top-notch idea generation strategies. These are useful for both your daily idea generation practice as well as for those situations where you need ideas on demand or are facing complex challenges where you need a breakthrough. The four strategies:

1. Change your brain state

2. Identify the problem (the real problem)

3. Constraints

4. Go where the ideas are

These aren't just theoretical concepts — they're the actual techniques used by prolific inventors, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Let's dig in...

Strategy 1: Change Your Brain State

Thomas Edison — one of the O.G. inventors — had this crazy trick: he’d nap in a chair holding a few steel ball bearings in his hand with a metal pan below. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, his fingers would relax dropping the bearings — BANG! — jolting him awake. In this semi-awake semi-asleep state Edison would write down whatever idea was on his mind. He was generally obsessing over a problem so often those ideas were just what he was looking for.

Edison was hacking his brain’t hypnagogic state. That sweet spot where the brain is starting to release itself — where barriers between different parts of the brain start coming down. Edison was catching his brain right at that moment — conscious enough to remember the ideas but loose enough to make new connections. Just enough for genius to slip through. (Maybe check with your downstairs neighbor before you make this practice part of your daily routine).

Josh Waitzkin has a similar trick. Josh, if you don’t know him, is one of the few people I can think of who has hit world-class levels in not one, not two, but three things — he’s an eight-time U.S. national chess champion, a two-time Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands world champion and a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt (street cred off the charts, right?). Josh has a practice that takes advantage of these different brain states. He ends his work day thinking about his most important question. Getting really deeply immersed in it. Then he completely releases himself from it. Chills all evening. Gets a good sleep. Then first thing in the morning — “pre-input” as Josh calls it — he gets out his journal and starts brainstorming and writing about the problem…often big insights occur. His subconscious has been churning away all night, and in that early morning state he can grab those insights before his normal thinking patterns kick in. Josh describes it as “systematically opening the channel between the conscious and the unconscious mind.”

Read more

I’m sitting in a dark conference room. The projector is blasting white light onto a screen at the front of the room so bright that it takes a while for my eyes to adjust. A box of donuts sits in the center of the table filling the room with the smells of sugary, fried batter goodness. Dave’s sitting to my left — he’s been around forever, seen it all. Bill, another veteran, is across the table. Up front is Raj, a young guy nervously clicking through some PowerPoint charts he probably spent all night sweating over. His hand shakes a bit, but his voice is confident as he describes his invention. Raj has an insight on how to build a better wireless mesh network by solving a particular problem with how they’re configured. Dave, Bill and I have the job of figuring out if this is a novel and valuable enough idea that the company should get a patent for it. This is my first time as an “expert” ‘in one of these meetings so I’m a bit nervous but hey…it’s not me up there. I get to sit back and be the critic.

Raj presents his idea and it’s pretty good but then something happens that I didn’t expect.

Dave starts chiming in. At first I think he's giving feedback, but then I realize something else is happening. He's not critiquing the idea - he's building on it, expanding it...he’s got ideas for how to make Raj’s idea even better. Bill pipes in with his own thoughts. Raj is a little taken aback by this (as am I) because this isn’t how it was supposed to go…he was expecting a few questions and a yes or no decision. But here are these two guys riffing on the spot practically taking over his idea. Next thing you know the idea is approved — but now Dave and Bill’s names are on the patent too.

Wait, what just happened there? It takes me a few moments, but then it clicks. This wasn't just a review meeting - it was an idea factory. Suddenly I got why Dave and Bill’s names were on so many patents. They had put themselves in a position where new ideas were brought to them and without much “work” they were able to add their own contributions. It felt a bit like stealing to me because the inventor had came in the room with “their” idea and left with “our” idea. But from the company’s perspective I guess it worked out — the ideas were improved and an invention created.

The lessons I learned:

• First, new ideas — like Raj’s — are fertile ground for even more new ideas because the inventor hasn’t had the time to fully bake the idea. Raj had the original insight on the solution but there were rough edges and things he hadn’t yet considered.

• Second, Raj had done the “hard work” of finding a problem worth solving in the first place. One of my main principles for coming up with ideas is finding and precisely defining the right problem — that’s often the hardest part. Dave and Bill didn’t even know this was a problem until Raj had presented it to them. But, once the problem was clearly identified their brains instantly came up with possible solutions.

Being in that patent review board meeting was my first glimpse that there might be more to generating ideas than just waiting for inspiration. If Dave and Bill could systematically build on ideas, maybe there were other systematic methods for coming up with ideas.

The common perception is that great ideas just happen...that they pop into your head while you're in the shower. That they just happen without any work on your part. Maybe that’s the case once in a long while but it’s foolish to leave it to chance….especially when there’s a better way. It’s possible to get a steady stream of ideas…sometimes flowing so quickly that you struggle to write them down fast enough. But you have to make it happen. The good news? There's a reliable way to generate ideas that doesn't depend on random inspiration or waiting for lightning to strike.

That's what this article is about - creating conditions where insights emerge consistently and predictably. Instead of random sparks, reliable streams. In other words, building your own idea engine...

The Idea Engine

I’ve had a front-row seat to see top inventors develop the ideas that are the foundation of billion-dollar tech companies. And I’ve studied creators and innovators who live and breathe this stuff. Each has built a system for generating ideas — some developed it consciously, while others stumbled onto it through trial and error. While each tailors their approach they all share three core elements in their “Idea Engine”:

1. Prep — you need fertile soil if you expect plants to grow.

2. Idea generation — get the ideas flowing.

3. Idea incubation — you gotta do something with them.

Let’s walk through each of these.

Prep

Practice #1: Curate Your Inputs

Everything we pay attention to is raw material for what we make.

- Rick Rubin

The ideas you have are largely a product of your inputs — so curate them carefully.

Lin-Manuel Miranda got the idea for Hamilton while reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton. He wasn't looking for musical inspiration - he was just following his curiosity about American history. But because he had immersed himself in both hip-hop culture and theatre, he saw something no one else had: Hamilton’s immigrant story was basically a hip-hop narrative.

George Lucas was more intentional with his curation. He was studying Joseph Campbell's work on mythology and Akira Kurosawa's samurai films while developing Star Wars. The Hero’s Journey structure and visual style that made Star Wars so revolutionary were directly influenced by those works.

When he was at Apple Jony Ive would have his design team spend weeks studying the history of everyday objects — doors, chairs, watches. They were building their taste in what makes objects timeless.

Sometimes, it's about putting yourself in the right places. Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC where he saw their work on graphical interfaces and mouse-driven computing. Xerox hadn’t grasped the value of what they had created - but Steve did.

Each of these examples show the value of curating what you see, read and hear. This was a practice for each of them…not some random activity. Fortune favours the prepared mind. And you prepare that mind by feeding it high quality interesting inputs.

And…it can't just be the same old stuff all the time. Or just the stuff that the X or YouTube algorithm wants to show you. You’ve got to mix it up, bump into new things and let your curiosity be your guide. I know this isn’t easy. We’re all focused on "getting things done”. I am too. I find it hard to know when to “lock in” and when to give myself permission to wander. But the top innovators make the time and put in the effort to find the good stuff that plants the seeds of inspiration.

So, what about you? What books are you reading? Who do you follow? Are you getting that steady drip of insights that makes your brain spark?

Once you've got good inputs flowing, you need a system to capture what comes out. Let's build that next...

Idea Generation

Practice #2: Collect Everything

First up, the obvious but crucial step: collect every idea and write it down. Don't hold them in your head — that's the unforced error. As David Allen says, "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them."

Where you hold them doesn’t matter…whatever you have on you. No fancy system needed. Your Notes app works fine. Napkins work too (though maybe transfer those somewhere else before laundry day...learned that one the hard way).

Practice #3: Generation

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

- Stephen King

This is the most important part — you must have an idea generation practice.

Notice the word: “practice”. Like shooting free throws or playing scales. You don’t just do it when you feel inspired. You do it every day.

To be specific: every day, write down 10 ideas. They can be good ideas, bad ideas, ideas about different things, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you force yourself to come up with 10 ideas — even on the days when you’ve got nothing.

Now you're thinking 'Ten ideas? Every day? Are you insane?' Look, I get it. Some days your brain feels more like a rusty faucet than an idea fountain. But here's the thing - it’s when you do this practice consistently that the magic happens. After a few weeks your brain starts to catch on to what you want. It realizes “I better up my game — we need 10 ideas for tomorrow” and it starts spotting them everywhere. You’ve primed your brain…turned it into an idea spotting machine. Your brain gets rewired from 'waiting for ideas' to 'hunting for ideas’. Getting ten ideas starts to become easy.

While you’re going to get a lot of ideas naturally, I’ve got some powerful strategies later in the article that will help you get that tap flowing.

Practice #4: Define a Target

Remember when I mentioned "priming" your brain? It's time to level that up.

With the idea generation practice you'll start coming up with tonnes of ideas. But we don't want just random ideas - we want ideas aimed at specific targets. Here's what you're going to do (yeah, another practice but stick with me): give your subconscious clear marching orders. Frame exactly what you're looking for: "give me ideas for articles that would help developers write cleaner code“ or “give me app ideas that solve real problems for authors”. The clearer the target, the sharper the ideas.

Get that request into your head - say it out loud a few times, write it down, whatever works for you. Then? Let it go. Get on with your day. Let the subconscious do its thing. Your brain's like one of those slow cookers - set it and forget it. Come back later and somehow the magic happens.

Okay…so you’ve got your idea engine revving and generating tonnes of ideas now. But now you’ve got a new problem: too many ideas. This is where incubation comes in.

Incubation

Practice #5: Put the Ideas Through an Idea Incubation Funnel

This is where a lot of people mess up…they just let the ideas sit in their notes app. They don’t do anything with them. Besides the obvious point that it makes no sense to come up with ideas if you’re not going to do anything with them your brain also figures out that this is pointless and starts resisting. That idea flow slows to a trickle.

Okay, so we have to do something with our ideas. But what?

Let me give you two approaches. First, the simple way (and sometimes simple is best): Once a week, scroll through your ideas. Pull out the best ones - either do something with them right away or put them in a system somewhere you'll actually see them. Only let the best ideas survive. Archive the rest. Clean slate. Done. Simple enough you might actually do it.

Want something more advanced? I have something I call the “Idea Incubation Funnel”. This is something I learned when I was working in an advanced wireless technology group that was tasked with systematically coming up with new technologies (the fancy 4G/5G wireless processing your phone does).

Here’s how it works: There’s a funnel. Lots of ideas go in the top, but only the best ones come out the bottom. Those ones that come out the bottom have been worked on for a while in the background — incubated.

The whole thing is based on two principles. First, it takes time and effort to “develop” an idea to see if it’s any good — for real good, not just first impressions good. Second, ideas need to earn their attention — kind of like a hunger games for ideas. At the top of the funnel, each idea gets a quick look - just enough to flesh it out a bit and see what it’s about. Then comes the filtering. The strongest survive and the weakest get cut.

Those ones that survive get a few more resources poured into them. Working them, advancing them, getting an even better sense if there’s something there. Another round of filtering. Only the ideas showing real promise move forward. It makes sense, right? Ideas need to be developed to see what they’ve got but we’re limited in time and resources so we have to be selective about it.

Here's how I run my personal version: Every idea gets 2 minutes - just enough to figure out what it really is. Then the first filtering. The survivors get 10 more minutes - maybe some quick research, a rough draft, or some sketches. Another round of filtering. The best three or so of those get a solid 30 minutes of development time each week. And then the best, most promising idea gets a half day of time to make some good progress on it.

There’s three big wins that come from this approach. First, it bridges the idea to the execution. When an idea is something that’s ready to be fully committed to you’ve already got some momentum. Second, it trains your brain to get better at recognizing what makes a good idea. And finally, it helps me avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’. I have a tendency to want to go all in on some new unproven thing…I’ve got plenty of half-finished projects to prove it. This system satisfies that itch to play with the shiny objects without getting derailed from my most important projects.

Of course, this second approach is way more complex and so it’s more difficult to maintain…but there’s wins to be had if you can make it work.

So now you've got the Idea Engine blueprint with the daily idea practice of coming up with 10 ideas at the heart of it all. That's your starting point, and it's a powerful one. Get that going and you're already way ahead of most people.

But sometimes you need ideas on demand. You need some heavy hitter strategies that will get ideas flowing when you need them most….I’ve got those coming in a follow-up post so keep an eye out for that.

It All Starts With Great Ideas

Ideas come to those who are in the habit of looking for them.

- James Webb Young

Ideas are powerful. But let's be real - they aren't everything. You need execution. You need the judgment to know which ideas are worth pursuing. But it all starts with great ideas. And you get great ideas by having lots of ideas. And you get lots of ideas by building an Idea Engine.

That's what I've laid out here: a system for generating ideas consistently and reliably. Not random inspiration, not waiting for lightning to strike. No, instead a real engine you can build and operate. It's both a practice - something you do every day - and a skill that gets sharper with use.

Remember that story I opened with? The one about Dave and Bill in that patent review meeting? That was a moment that crystallized this realization that ideas aren't some mystical thing that just happen to you - you can make them happen. Not by chance, but by system.

Now you've got the same playbook - the prep work, the daily practice and the incubation system to make ideas happen when you need them.

The rest? That's up to you. Start your engine with 10 ideas today. Keep it running tomorrow. And the day after. Because somewhere in that steady stream of ideas, there's gold waiting to be discovered. Let's get that engine running.

There's a paradox at the heart of achieving great things: The more capable you are, the harder it is to get clarity on what to do next. Your intelligence and ambition — the very things that should be your advantages — end up working against you.

Your analytical brain? Instead of helping you move forward, it points out all the ways things could go wrong. It takes you knee-deep into research and analysis looking for answers instead of trusting your own instincts.

Those high standards? They've got you endlessly iterating on that plan because somehow version 8.3.1 still isn't quite "there."

Your ambition? The stakes feel so high you freeze. Your internal decision-making software crashing under the weight of your dreams.

Each of your strengths working against you.

When you strive for the extraordinary the feelings of fear, doubt and uncertainty are there to stay — they are the price of admission. Clarity is not a feeling of calm or a feeling of certainty. And it is certainly not knowing the path to the outcome.

Sure, that’s what we want. But any idealized version of “clarity” where these feelings go away is a mirage. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can start making real progress.

So what is clarity really, and how do we actually find it?

Finding Clarity

My definition of clarity is being locked in on your long-term vision and knowing your next concrete action. That's it.

No perfect plans. No complete roadmaps. No certainty. Just a clear destination and a next step.

I can hear your analytical brain having a meltdown already. "But what's the plan? We haven't mapped out the dependencies. What about edge cases? And failure scenarios?" The urge to plan and to try and figure it out in our head is strong.

The thing about going after extraordinary goals is that they’re, well, difficult. The path to get there is uncertain. There are problems you can't even see yet, let alone solve. Skills you don't have. You don't even know if what you're attempting is possible. You can’t think your way through that uncertainty.

You can only get there one step at a time iterating back and forth between figuring out your next action and then taking that action. Every action you take reveals new information about the path forward. Information you could never get through thinking alone (shocking, I know - apparently the universe doesn't read our business plans).

So here's our challenge: we know action is what matters, but we still need to do some thinking to figure out which actions to take. How do we best do that?

The solution has two parts:

1. High-performance thinking habits - ways of thinking that harnesses your analytical capabilities rather than letting them run wild.

2. A systematic framework of four thinking roles that keeps you focused and moving forward with action rather than staying stuck planning.

Let's start with the high-performance thinking habits.

High-Performance Thinking Habits

There are two key thinking habits that are critical to develop. (And no, "manifest success through positive vibes" didn't make the cut.)

Key Habit #1: Actively Make Decisions

Everyone knows making decisions is important. But knowing and doing are two different beasts. I'm "decision-challenged" myself — I sit on decisions. I hesitate, trapped in an endless loop of “needing more information." The first app I built and put out into the world was a baseball stats tracking app. I had this thing sitting in a holding pattern for six months because I couldn’t decide whether to add the ability to sync through the cloud. I hummed and hawed back-and-forth. Finally, I just launched without it. Six months wasted…all because I couldn’t make a decision.

So, how do we become more decisive? I think the answer is to crank it up to 11. Don't wait for decisions to find you — hunt them down like your success depends on it (because it does). There’s a couple things that might block you.

First, you might worry about being wrong. I find this a particular problem for analytical types like engineers because there’s status with being the one who’s right. You’ve got to get over this…shift your mindset. Be okay with being wrong — and give yourself permission to change your mind.

Second, fear. You might be afraid of taking the action and the ensuing consequences from making that decision. Harsh truth: this is what you signed up for when you decided to go after that extraordinary goal. Summon some courage, make a decision and then get into taking action.

But wait, there’s more: there’s one particular type of decision that’s blocking you….

Key Habit #2: Be Specific

We have a tendency to want to keep things general…to leave things open. We decide that we’re going to build an app and so we sketch out a few screens. There’s tons of details to figure out and we’re not sure which way to go. So we stop to “think about it”. We tell ourselves we're being thoughtful, strategic even. In reality, we're avoiding the hard work of getting specific about the details. Keeping things vague feels good in the moment. It lets us dream without committing — there’s no risk of being wrong. But this vagueness is an action killer.

Eventually, we do push through and make some decisions. We get some momentum going. But then we hit another point where the path forward isn't clear – maybe it's deciding on the next feature or we start to think about the look and feel of the app – and we fall right back into that pattern of indecision. We set it aside to “do some research and look for inspiration.” This vagueness becomes our comfort zone - a place where we never have to commit to the hard decisions about details. We're really just postponing action. Those delays compound, turning days into weeks, and weeks into months, until one day we realize our bold idea has become just another unfinished project gathering dust while we’ve moved on to the next shiny idea (that we’ll totally finish this time).

Let’s remind ourself of what our ultimate goal is — relentless bold action. And so, staying in this comfort zone of vagueness is a huge problem.

The solution? Force yourself to be specific…crank it up to 11. (Yeah, we're doing a lot of cranking things up to 11 around here. At this rate, we might need to build an amp that goes to 12. Specially designed for Spinal Tap.)

Specificity is a decision about the details. Your brain's first response will probably be "let's check Twitter instead.” It may feel premature to figure out details when we’re worried about the high-level questions. But force yourself to put a stake in the ground on those details anyways…because that’s what unlocks action. You can always change course later if needed.

With those high performance thinking habits under our belt it’s time to talk about taking a systematic approach to our thinking.

The 4 Thinking Roles

When I was a kid my Dad had a Mazda RX-7...a fun little sports-car. But there was a problem…it only had two seats and we were a family of five. There were many times when I was stuck in the hatch-back my feet wedged beneath the front seats, my neck cranked down to fit under the roof. When I had my own three kids I went the other direction: we had a Honda Odyssey to cart them and all their stuff around town.

Just as different vehicles serve different purposes — some perfect for a mid-life crisis and others for carrying kids and their giant hockey bags around — there are different types of thinking we need to do. We have to choose the “right vehicle” suited to the purpose.

There are four different types of thinking, each with its own 'role' that shapes how we need to approach it:

1. The Leader: defines the long-term vision — the ‘what’ and the ‘why’.

2. The Strategist: figures out ‘how’ to make the vision happen — the plan.

3. The Coordinator: transforms the strategy into day-to-day actions.

4. The Maker: gets stuff done and handles the ground-level in-the-moment decisions.

Let's dig into each role.

The Leader

The Leader defines what extraordinary looks like for you. What it is and why this is the right choice for you. Everything flows from this vision.

You don't need to have it all figured out on day one. Your vision will emerge and evolve as you take action. But you do need to put a stake in the ground right now — something specific enough to guide decisions.

The Leader must get clear on four core things:

1. Your Central Thesis

2. Your Why

3. Long Term Outcomes

4. Who You Must Become

Your central thesis is your big bet about where things are going and how you'll win. It’s your elevator pitch — but for you, not for anyone else so express it in a way that speaks to you. This central thesis combines your view of the world with your unique way of creating value and impact.

Next comes your ‘why’. Why is this the right choice for you? What is the price that you’ll have to pay? This is where logic and emotion intersect. Your “why” should not be just a rational, logical argument. It has to come from a deeper emotional place driven by a higher purpose. I find it useful for this emotional component to contain both the positive and the negative. The positive part is that compelling vision that you’re moving towards. The negative part are those painful forces or a future of regret that we are moving away from.

Your long term outcomes are those big, specific outcomes that you’re going after…what does success look like?

And finally, the version of who you are today is probably not capable of the extraordinary outcome you’re going for. Who do you need to become? What skills, character traits, mindsets and beliefs must you develop?

The Leader Mindset

The Leader's job is to think big - to see what could be. There is a suspension, to a degree, of our limitations. This vision takes into account what our unique contribution can be. The vision should be something that is both feasible and something we’re willing to pay the price for. You want ambitious, not delusional.

This vision becomes your North Star — something you revisit every couple weeks to refine and extend. But a North Star only works if you use it to guide you.

The real test? At any moment you should be able to answer: "Is what I'm doing right now moving me directly toward my vision?" If you can't answer with a clear yes or no, your vision needs more work. The great news is that once you've got that vision locked in this question becomes a sobering reality check immediately snapping you back to the right path when you go astray. Just yesterday I caught myself going deep down a YouTube rabbit hole learning some new skills. But when I asked myself this reality check question I realized that this was a distraction. One quick check against my vision and boom - I was back working on what actually mattered.

The Strategist

While the Leader defines the 'what' and 'why', the Strategist figures out the 'how'. Here's where it's easy to get stuck - spinning our wheels building elaborate plans that get thrown out on day one. Here’s where we start worrying about all the ways that things can go wrong. (I’m still trying to find the pause button on my brain's "what could go wrong?" feature.)

The Strategist's job isn't to create a perfect or even great plan. No, it’s to get something that’s good enough. Don’t worry about making the wrong decisions — that’s not a big deal. Not making decisions? That's what kills projects.

My daughter is a competitive rock climber. She and her teammates talk about these things called 'crux moves'. As a climber works their way up a wall many moves are easy or straightforward. But then they get to a ‘crux move’. This is a move where things get really difficult. They make you go “oh...this is going to be interesting".

This rock climbing analogy has two valuable lessons that we’re going to apply (and no, one of them isn't "don't look down"):

Lesson 1: Your attention and effort has to be all-in on the crux move right in front of you. Worrying about crux moves further up the wall is hurting you — not helping.

Lesson 2: You can't solve a crux move from the ground. You need to get right up to it, feel the holds, see what you're actually dealing with. That impossible-looking move is often not so bad once you're actually there.

There will be many crux moves on your path to doing the extraordinary. Your job as the Strategist is to identify just the next crux move. That's it. Just that next difficult step ahead. Your brain wants to worry about all the difficult things further down the road (mine too). That's how you end up with those beautiful but useless 50-page strategic plans.

The second job of the Strategist is to figure out how to get up to the crux move as quickly as possible. You want to get a close look at it. If you spend too much mental energy worrying about the crux move before you get there you can easily get stuck on the easy, straightforward parts on the way there.

This is a problem I often have. I’ll be on step 1 when the crux move will be at step 10. But I have this broad feeling of doubt and fear in my gut…you know the kind. But the task right in front of me — step 1 — isn’t that hard. So, I’m confused why I’m feeling this way. Now I know why. My brain is worried about the crux move coming up but that crux move is far enough off that I can’t wrap my head around it. And so my brain sends out these broad signals of discomfort. Now I know what I need to do…get past those feelings and get the easy stuff done to get up to that crux move. Once I’m there then I’ll have a better sense of whether my feelings are justified.

So how do we get to that next crux move as quickly as possible? By identifying our constraints. Ask yourself: what is the one thing that is blocking us from getting to that crux point as soon as possible? That thing, whatever it is, is called the 'constraint'.

Once you’ve found the constraint put all of your energy and attention into solving it. No splitting your attention five different ways. All-in on solving the constraint.

Having said that, I find it difficult to always be working on the constraint -- constraints are constraints for a reason: they’re hard. Just as important is momentum…forward motion. And so I mix in some quick wins with that constraint-busting work.

This mix of constraint-focused work and quick wins needs to be translated into something concrete for the Coordinator. The Strategist's job is to break it down into focused projects with specific outcomes that can be achieved in 2-3 days. (Your brain will hate this level of specificity. Don’t give in…do the work.)

The Coordinator

The Coordinator bridges strategy and action. While the Strategist is writing up the battle plan, the Coordinator is loading the weapons and counting the ammunition. (Too dramatic? Maybe, but you get the idea.)

This is very tactical and action-oriented. The Coordinator figures out what to do each day — setting intentions, determining concrete next actions and ensuring that the resources (time, attention, equipment, etc.) are ready to take action.

The Coordinator also runs the 'machines’ — that is the systems, workflows and routines that create the consistent core work output and run our fundamental daily practices (including taking care of ourself).

The Coordinator has two main jobs:

1. Plan the day. Each day brings its own chaos - meetings, urgent emails, that one bug that just won't die (seriously, I swear it's reproducing when we're not looking). The Coordinator's job is to make sure the important stuff — our key actions to solve the constraint — don't get swallowed by the urgent stuff.

2. Create a list of concrete next actions for the Maker.

It’s important to double-click on this idea of making our next actions concrete. Your brain operates in two modes: idea mode and action mode. Idea mode is good for abstract thought, strategy and complex analysis. It’s the mode to be in for planning and strategizing. But it’s not the mode to be in when you want to get stuff done…that’s where the action mode comes in. Action mode blazes through tasks but…only if those tasks are specific and concrete. If the tasks are abstract or lacking definition our brain struggles. It wants to be told explicitly what to do. So, instead of "improve the user experience" (cue existential crisis) we make it concrete like "fix that button that looks like it was designed in 1999" (now we're talking).

The problem? Our brain in idea mode likes to keep things vague and abstract. It finds the low-level details boring. It just wants to move on to the next big idea. Since it’s the idea mode that does the planning we have to force it to make the next actions concrete. It will resist — it wants to save energy, take it easy, move on. Don’t let it. Make all of your next actions concrete.

The Maker

The Maker is where the rubber meets the road. No more planning, no more strategizing - just pure execution. This could be in focused 10-minute sprints or 4-hour deep work sessions where you emerge wondering why it's dark outside and if you remembered to eat lunch. Either way, the Maker works from a concrete action list from the Coordinator. Think of it as your "just do it" mode - no questioning, no second-guessing, just focused action. (Nike was right all along. Though I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking about debugging sessions at 2 AM when they came up with that slogan.)

Making the Roles Work Together

These four roles — Leader, Strategist, Coordinator, and Maker — are your complete operating system for turning big dreams into real results. Each role builds on the previous one: vision becomes strategy, strategy becomes projects, projects become next actions, and actions become results.

Give each role its own time and space. When you keep these roles separate, you prevent the kind of mental gridlock that happens when you try to be visionary and tactical at the same time. The Leader can dream without getting bogged down in details. The Strategist can plan without the pressure of immediate execution. The Coordinator can organize without getting pulled into long-term thinking. And the Maker can simply execute.

Remember: The goal isn't perfection in any role. The goal is forward momentum toward your vision. Making decisions. Getting specific. Taking action.

Conclusion

When you reach for the extraordinary, fear, doubt, and uncertainty come with the territory. There is no perfect plan that will make those feelings go away. (I know, I've tried. Multiple spreadsheets were harmed in the process.) Instead of trying to make the feelings go away focus on bold, direct action.

Start with a compelling vision from your ‘Leader’ thinking. Then focus on finding the next crux move and the quickest path to get there with small focused projects. Then execute. Day after day.

Hunt down decisions. Get specific — painfully specific. Reclaim your intelligence and ambition as strengths that propel you forward instead of holding you back.

When we're stuck, it's rarely because we're not capable enough. It's usually because we haven't done the hard work of getting clear - really clear - about what needs to happen next.

Remember that brutal irony we started with? How your greatest strengths can become your biggest barriers? Well, here's the plot twist: They're only barriers when you use them to hide from action. Start using them to drive action, and they become the exact tools you need.

Your extraordinary future is out there. Time to think clearly and act boldly.

You've got all these skills. Some you've spent years developing. Others you've picked up along the way. But how do you combine them into something extraordinary? How do you take what you already have and transform it into a category of one?

That's the million-dollar question. In parts one and two, we saw how top performers like Mark Rober and Jack Butcher found their winning combinations. We unpacked the fundamental equation: combine skills to make a unique stack, create value solving real problems, and dominate your category.

But theory only gets you so far. You need a practical blueprint for building your own stack. That's what we'll tackle here - specific strategies and frameworks for crafting your unique combination. We'll dissect real examples, break down the math, and give you concrete steps to move forward.

Building Your Unique Stack

There’s no perfect step-by-step process that will lead you to know what stack you should build. And that’s because it has to fit you and what feels right to you. In reality, it’s a messy process filled with iteration, exploration and discovery. Some people start with a clear vision of the value they want to create and work backwards from there. Others follow their curiosity or lean into what they’re already good at and look for that extra skill or two to make it unique. Here are proven strategies that can guide you through this messy process:

Your Zone of Genius — Where Your Passion Meets Potential

Building a category of one isn't just about what you can do - it's about what gets you excited to jump out of bed in the morning. That spark of enthusiasm that makes the hard work feel like play. And here's why that matters: this is a long game. It takes thousands of hours to build up each skill, figure out how to combine them effectively, and understand how to provide real value with that stack.

Too often talented people chase skills that look good on paper but bore them to tears. Skills that were "smart" choices but left them feeling empty. Your stack needs to fit you — not like those skinny jeans you bought because they were cool…more like that old hoodie you actually want to wear. The one that feels just right.

Mark Rober is actually a perfect example of this. He had his engineering job which paid the bills. But then he’d build cool stuff on the weekends. His first viral hit was a Halloween costume that made it look like he had a hole right through his chest. He put one iPad on the front of his chest and a second iPad on his back. Then he wrote some code to take what the camera was seeing on one iPad and display it on the other one (and vice versa). The result: a costume that looked like he had a hole right through his chest. Genius. Talk about using your smarts to be the coolest guy at the party.

What’s important here is that Mark was just following his curiosity and doing what he thought was cool and fun. That’s a pretty good starting point.

Does this mean that every element in our skill stack is something you love? No way. There’s going to be skills that you need to include which you’re either neutral or maybe aren’t crazy about.

And should you build your stack around your championship battle-ax throwing skills? That would be cool and maybe, but probably not. MKBHD is a world-class ultimate frisbee player — he plays for team USA. (I know, cool, right!). But that’s not something that he builds into his skill stack. There are practical considerations.

Copy, Paste, and Make It Yours

A smart strategy is to find someone with a proven skill stack and remix it with your own unique twist. Jack Butcher is a good example of this. Jack was inspired by Naval Ravikant's ability to compress profound insights into memorable wisdom that he Tweeted out. Jack took that basic idea but transformed it by leaning in to his design skills, turning those philosophical insights into striking black-and-white visuals. He understood that the key ingredient that made it work was the distillation of complex ideas down to their essence — he made sure to keep that and get that part right. The result? Jack became a category of one with viral tweet after viral tweet ultimately leading to a million dollar brand.

The beauty of this approach is that the stack is already validated. You just need to find a way to make it yours:

• Pick one of the core skills and then switch it for something similar but different.

• Take one of their average skills and crank up the proficiency to world-class.

• Add something that’s unique about you such as a character trait or specialized knowledge.

• Apply it to a different audience.

Own the Value Chain

You know why Apple's stuff 'just works'? It’s because they control everything — the whole value chain. The chips, the hardware, the software - they're like the control freaks of tech. And weirdly, in this case anyways, that's a good thing.

Think about someone who can both code an app and design beautiful and useful interfaces. They can iterate in real-time which leads to a better quality, more cohesive app and it’s done much quicker too.

Nathan Barry used this approach to build ConvertKit into a $30M+ business. He combined design skills, coding ability, and deep marketing knowledge to create email software specifically for creators. While others might have had two of these skills, Nathan's control of the entire value chain let him build, design, and market a solution that precisely met creator needs. Then he added his unique perspective as a creator himself, putting him in a category of one.

Now, this idea of owning the value chain seems contrary to the advice from part two where I said to find skills that are not commonly found together. There’s nuance and judgment here. Having skills in adjacent parts of the value chain might not be unique, but it creates a foundation you can build on. When you add that extra element - like Nathan's perspective as a creator - that's when the magic happens, transforming a solid combination into something extraordinary.

Look for Bridges

Sometimes the fastest path to a category of one is finding creative ways to bridge what you’ve already got into new domains.

Chris Voss is a great example. Chris was an FBI hostage negotiator — the guy on the phone getting deep into the psyche of the hostage taker. Figuring out what makes them tick. Working to come to a resolution…all under unimaginable pressure. (I've had some meetings that felt like hostage situations...wish I'd had Chris on speed dial.) But his genius move wasn't just being great at hostage negotiation - it was realizing these same skills could be applied to the business world. He bridged his specialized knowledge to an entirely new domain, creating massive value in the process.

Now, Chris didn't just copy-paste his FBI techniques into the business world. He got to work…studying the traditional business negotiation methods by taking courses at Harvard and seeking out the best to learn from. He identified ways to blend and extend his real-world experience with the theory. The result? A unique approach that put him in a category of one. Now he’s one of the world’s most sought-out experts on negotiation, written the bestseller “Never Split the Difference” and even has a Masterclass on negotiation (and it’s great).

This idea of "bridging" is broader than just taking knowledge from one domain and applying it to another. Here are five powerful ways to bridge your existing skills into something new:

Implementation Bridge: Turn theoretical knowledge into practical solutions. Dr. Peter Attia takes cutting-edge medical research and translates it into actionable protocols for patients, blending medical expertise with an engineer's systematic thinking.

Scale Bridge: Transform individual expertise into systems that work at scale. Alex Hormozi didn't just master business growth - he figured out how to systematize and teach those insights through YouTube and books, reaching millions instead of just his direct clients.

Interface Bridge: Deliver expertise through novel formats that unlock new value. Take Julia Evans - she teaches system engineering by creating educational comics ("wizard zines"). Or Hans Rosling, who transformed dry global health statistics into compelling visual narratives that changed how people understand world development.

Trust Bridge: Convert domain expertise into broader influence. Naval Ravikant leveraged his success in tech startups to become Silicon Valley's philosopher. His insights carrying extra weight because of his proven track record.

Market Bridge: Find new audiences where you adapt your existing expertise to solve their problems. Chris Voss did this by bringing hostage negotiation techniques to business.

The key insight? When you bridge skills to new domains or formats, you need new supporting skills to make it work. That's where your unique stack emerges. Chris Voss didn't just port FBI techniques to business - he had to learn traditional negotiation methods, develop teaching skills, and master business communication. Those additional skills, combined with his unique background, created his category of one.

Not in a Category of One? (Don't Panic, Here's Plan B)

Being in a category of one is hard - no surprise there. What if you're close but not quite there?

Remember that example from part two where I showed how Ramit Sethi is in a group of about ten authors competing for the same market. Imagine you were one of those other nine authors competing with Ramit. You've got the financial knowledge, good writing, and psychological insight. But you're nowhere near his marketing genius. What then?

There are four paths that you could take:

1. Make It Objectively Better

The obvious move is to upgrade your stack. Develop deeper audience insight or level up your writing to world class levels. This would make your product objectively better. You’d probably get more word-of-mouth and maybe better reviews. But is it enough? If no one knows it’s better, probably not. You'll still need solid marketing skills to showcase that quality.

2. Upgrade Your Offer

Channel your inner Alex Hormozi — instead of upgrading the core product add layers of value to make your offer irresistible. Make it so good it feels like a no-brainer. Add free video courses. Throw in valuable extras. Guarantee results. Make it dead obvious you’ll deliver and can get them results faster. These are all technically “marketing” but they are all creative ways to upgrade your offer without rapidly building traditional marketing skills.

3. Shift to a Different Category

Sometimes the answer is to be different. A different audience. A different perspective or concept. A different format. If you can’t be in a category of one is there an adjacent category you can shift to where you can? Usually this means adding new skills (knowledge of a different audience, different ways to format your book etc.) but not necessarily. Sometimes it’s just a shift in product positioning.

4. Hire the Missing Piece

If you can't be world-class at marketing, hire someone who is. Yes, it's gonna cost you. But it fills that critical gap that’s holding everything back. (I have more to say on this below).

So if you're not quite a category of one yet, you've got options. Keep working, finding solutions and moving forward. But there's one strategy that deserves a deeper look: teaming up with someone else.

Don’t Go It Alone - The Power of Combining Stacks

There’s a lesson that I, an introvert and control freak, need to keep learning the hard way: you can’t do everything yourself. I know, I know - this news hits some of us harder than others. I'm still in recovery.

There are two situations where bringing in help changes everything.

The first: when you’re trapped doing low-value work instead of the stuff that moves the needle. Ali Abdaal talks about how his YouTube channel took off when he finally gave up the editing to focus full time on content. More time on high-value work = faster growth.

The second: when combining your stack with someone else’s creates something truly unique. The perfect example is the story of FeedbackPanda.

The story starts in Germany, 2017. Danielle Simpson, an opera singer, is sidelined with a leg injury. She needs money to live and so she’s desperate to find some work. She starts teaching English online to Chinese kids. It’s intense — back-to-back 25-minute lessons, 5-minute breaks, 10 hours a day. Right away she discovers a problem. The parents of these kids expect written feedback every day on how their kid is doing and she doesn’t get paid unless she does it. It’s not that hard to do but it ends up taking Danielle an extra 2 hours every day (all unpaid). Danielle cobbles together a solution with Excel and Word templates duct-taped together. This is where her boyfriend, Arvid Kahl enters the picture. Arvid’s a software developer and our boy’s a pro — he can code. He puts together an app which cuts that 2 hours down to 10 minutes. They call it “Feedback Panda” and they launch it as a SaaS.

But at first they get no response....crickets. That's when Danielle dives deep into the Facebook groups and she’s really good at it — listening, sympathizing, persuading. These teachers are telling her exactly what they need. They iterate on the product and eventually, they start to see some growth — bit-by-bit, all organic. Danielle’s hard work in the Facebook groups starts to pay off. It turns out that teachers trust other teachers…a lot…and so the word-of-mouth is insane. Word spreads about how great Feedback Panda is and sales take off. Two years after starting it, Arvid and Danielle sell FeedbackPanda for a life changing amount of money.

From a skill stack perspective neither Arvid nor Danielle had the abilities to pull this off. Not even close. But together? Magic. Together they were a category of one.

That's the power of combining stacks. Sometimes the fastest path to a category of one isn't building every skill in the stack yourself - it's finding the right person to build it with.

Case Studies

Case Study: Lenny Rachitsky

Lenny went from being a software developer and then product manager at AirBnB to running the biggest business newsletter on Substack. He also runs one of the top business podcasts “Lenny’s Podcast” and a bunch of other valuable stuff…he’s the go-to guy in the tech product management space.

Lenny’s core skills are content curation, network building and branding with a personality that exudes authority and trust. The value is clear: in the tech industry good decisions = big money. That’s what Lenny delivers — he helps product managers make better decisions. He shares frameworks and proven best practices from the top minds in the industry. That leads both to better products for the companies these product managers work for as well a strong reputation and more influence for that person. Win-win (and I would tack on a win for Lenny too).

Category of One Math

Starting pool is people with technical product management expertise: 500K with Lenny in top 20% of that group leaving 100K.

Skilled at content curation: 80% of those leaving 80K with Lenny in top 5% of that group leaving 4K.

Networking ability (attracting top PMs and leaders): 10% of those leaving 400 with Lenny in top 2% leaving 8.

Brand + character traits of authority, credibility and trust: 50% of those leaving 4 with Lenny in top 5% of that group leaving only 1 — Lenny.

Key Lesson

Lenny exemplifies a category of one. His journey highlights how a thoughtfully constructed skill stack, built over time, can establish unparalleled expertise and influence.

Looking at the math here there are about 4 people in the world who could compete with Lenny at building a media business based on technical product management. But Lenny’s relatable, unassuming style and authority builds an amazing level of trust that puts him above the others into a category of one.

One of the things I love about Lenny is that he talks openly on his podcast about how he’s working to get better. Take, for example, the episode with Tristan de Montebello who runs a course called “Ultraspeaking”. Lenny brings Tristan on and they’re dropping value bombs left and right. I urge you to give it a listen because it will show you some quick and fun ways to be a better speaker right away. The amazing thing here is how Lenny’s built a virtuous flywheel. Every episode delivers great value AND he himself upgrades his skill stack. Lenny's not just winning - he's widening the gap.

Case Study: Grant Sanderson

Grant Sanderson's 3Blue1Brown channel (6.6M subscribers) does something magical - it makes math beautiful. Not just clear, actually beautiful. He transforms boring equations into visuals that make you go 'ohhhh, now I get it!' That's his superpower.

Grant’s core skills are mathematical intuition and teaching and building stunning math visualizations with programming. The value Grant provides is that he turns mathematical concepts into visual masterpieces. His animations reveal the deep beauty and elegance hiding in complex equations. For people who love math, his videos aren't just explanations - they're revelations, showing how abstract concepts connect in ways textbooks never could.

Category of One Math

Starting pool is university level mathematicians: 250K with Grant in top 50% leaving 125K,

Skill at teaching math concepts: 80% of those leaving 100K with Grant in top 1% leaving 1K.

YouTube video production skills: 10% of those leaving 100, with Grant in top 50% of those leaving about 50.

Mathematical concept visualization with programming: 20% of those leaving 10 with Grant in top 0.1% leaving only 1 — Grant.

Key Lesson

Sure, many mathematicians can code, and many coders understand math - that's an obvious combo. But Grant does something different…he uses code to create stunning math visualizations. He created his own library to do this (called Manim). This is one of those stacks with two world-class skills: here the ability to teach math concepts and the ability to use programming to visualize math. Both world class that leads to the category of one.

It’s interesting to compare Grant to Mark Rober. Both of them deliver immense value through YouTube, leveraging complex, technical knowledge. However, their audiences and approaches differ significantly. Mark’s broad appeal, rooted in entertainment and inspiration, attracts millions and generates substantial income. Grant, on the other hand, caters to a more niche audience with advanced mathematical understanding, making monetization more challenging. Yet, Grant’s work has earned him immense respect, authority, and status. By offering his videos for free, he’s contributing profoundly to making the world a better place. I’m not saying one is better than the other. I’m saying you have choices.

Case Study: Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant is a successful tech founder who started AngelList. He’s been an early investor in numerous tech unicorns. He has since become known as a philosophical thought leader within the tech community. He has an ability to distill complex wisdom about topics such as wealth creation and happiness into memorable Tweets and sound bites that encapsulate a pearl of wisdom. This has earned him a massive following and influence.

Besides his core abilities to build tech business and investing Naval is a master at generating novel insights and mental models for business and life grounded in First Principles Thinking and packaging those complex ideas into compact, memorable, actionable nuggets. He’s also world class at understanding platform leverage and capturing attention.

The value Naval delivers is first principles insights boiled down to essential, memorable truths. His tech success gives him credibility, but it’s his ability to distill complex wisdom into actionable principles that makes his insights so valuable. He doesn't just share ideas - he changes how people think.

"The mark of a charlatan is to explain simple things in a complex way; the mark of a genius is to explain complex things in a simple way."

— Naval Ravikant

Need I say more.

Category of One Math:

Starting pool is set of successful people in the tech industry in the U.S.: 10 Million with Naval in top 1% leaving 100K,

Ability to get platform leverage and attention: 40% of those leaving 40K with Naval in top 10% of that group leaving 4K.

Ability to generate novel insights and mental models for business and life (First Principles Thinking) : 25% of those leaving 1K with Naval in top 1% of that group leaving 10.

Ability to package and communicate complex ideas into compact, memorable, actionable nuggets: 60% of those leaving about 6 with Naval in top 0.1% of that group leaving just 1 — Naval.

Key Lesson

Naval is an example of taking success and credibility in one area (tech business) and using that to create a whole new category of one. He doesn’t just drop wisdom — he’s got that street cred that gives what he says a lot of weight.

While other successful tech founders look for the next big exit, Naval’s built an entirely different kind of value: becoming the tech world's modern philosopher with his unique ability to distill wisdom and leverage social platforms. (Attention is the new oil.)

I think Naval is a great example where these different skills combine to make something exponentially better. Imagine Naval had great insights but he couldn’t communicate them as these little gems of wisdom. Or imagine he could do that but he didn’t have the platform leverage savvy — he doesn’t get on Rogan or Tim Ferriss’ podcast or leverage X like he does. All that wisdom would probably stay within a tight community of just his close friends. It’s this combination of those 3 skills that unlocks the extraordinary and gives him that category of one influence.

The Path Forward

We've covered the complete mental model: what skill stacks are, why they matter, how to build them, and what to watch out for.

The path forward is clear: Don't be the best, be the only. Combine skills strategically, create real value, and dominate your category. That's how you build something extraordinary. Combine, create, dominate.

I’m not saying it’s easy. Building a skill stack is way harder than describing one. Choosing the right skills to include, developing them to a world-class level, and combining them to deliver real value — all hard. And yes, success depends on many factors, including some outside your control. There are no guarantees.

Steve Jobs was a skill stacker — one of the best. In his famous Stanford commencement address, he tells the story of stumbling into a calligraphy class and how, years later, that experience shaped how fonts were rendered on the Mac. His insight:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

— Steve Jobs

Look, you can sit around waiting for the dots to connect themselves, or you can get out there and start connecting them yourself. I'm firmly in the 'make stuff happen' camp. If you want to do something extraordinary, becoming a category of one by crafting a unique skill stack is not just a good approach — it’s essential. And I prefer to do that strategically, building and refining my stack with intention and purpose. Being open to curiosity and new discoveries and adjusting when I’m proven wrong.

It’s time to stop reading and start building. Go build your stack, become a category of one, and make something extraordinary.

Jack Butcher was burned out — trapped in the graphics designer hamster wheel. For ten years, he’d done everything “right”. Moved to New York from his home in the UK, built a solid portfolio, worked at multiple agencies for the biggest clients. He even started his own agency. But he felt like he was pushing a boulder up an endless hill. If he stopped pushing for just a moment the boulder would roll back down and crush him.

Every day he was fighting for design work competing with hundreds of other skilled designers. Sure, he was good — but not so exceptional that he could command the highest rates and be picky about who to work for. He was stuck, burned out and hungry for something more.

Then Jack had an insight that changed everything: graphic design wasn’t his only skill. He had a deep interest in philosophy and a unique ability to compress insights down into simple graphics that instantly conveyed a message — like a visual version of Naval Ravikant.

He started experimenting. He published his graphical nuggets of wisdom on Twitter doing it with his own unique style defined by simple black-and-white shapes and just a few words. His work embodied the essence of compression — boiling profound truths down to their most essential elements. His graphics spread like wildfire and Jack’s brand “Visualize Value” took off. Within 18 months he had built a brand worth $1M+ and now companies were pursuing him, not the other way around.

What transformed Jack from burned out agency owner to category leader? A skill stack. He combined solid (but not exceptional) graphic design skills with his interest in philosophy and a world-class talent for compressing ideas to their core. This unique combination put him in a category of one - with the result being a massively valuable brand. (Jack himself breaks down this concept of strategic skill stacking in this video)

This is exactly the playbook I outlined in part one - the “combine, create, dominate” formula. Combine skills to create a category of one, create compelling value with those skills, and dominate your category. That’s how you win. The alternative? Staying stuck on the hamster wheel unable to break free.

Jack’s transformation reveals something crucial about skill stacks: they’re not just a collection of random skills. They’re carefully crafted combinations that set you apart. But what creates a truly powerful skill stack?

After analyzing dozens of skill stacks like Jack’s I’ve identified three essential ingredients:

1. It must be unique — that’s what puts you in a category of one.

2. It provides value by solving real problems.

3. It doesn’t have any fatal flaws which bring the whole stack down.

Let’s dig into each of these concepts.

Building a Category of One Stack

The whole point of building a skill stack is to become a category of one…and the only way that happens is if that stack is unique. If lots of people can do what you can do then you don’t have a category of one.

How do you make a stack unique? Here’s five key insights:

Key #1: The Magic is in the Combination

The first and most important thing to understand is that a skill stack isn't just a collection of independent skills. This is the mistake that most people make. They build up multiple skills but they never figure out how to combine them effectively. It’s at the intersection of the skills where the magic happens.

We saw this with Mark Rober: combining his ability to make engineering cool with his taste in great video concepts and his personality. It’s the intersection of these three things that makes the whole thing work. Same for Jack Butcher: he combines his ability to identify compelling philosophical insights with an ability to compress that insight down to its essential elements and finally the graphic design skills to convey the message. It’s at the intersection of those three where the unique value lies.

Key #2: How Good is Good Enough?

One fundamental question you’re probably asking: how good do you need to be?

You need at least one, and preferably two or three core skills that you're ridiculously good at. The kind of good where people say “oh yeah, you need to talk to [your name] about that.”

Mark Rober’s core skills? He’s world-class in three things: coming up with video concepts, on-screen charisma, and being able to take engineering and make it interesting and accessible to a broad audience.

The mistake a lot of people make is that they get to “above-average-good” at many things but not exceptional at anything. You know what that makes them? A generalist. Which is great if your goal is to be a killer at dinner party conversations. Not so great if you're trying to build something meaningful. It’s not going to put you in a category of one…and you’re going to stay stuck pushing that boulder up the hill. You definitely need a couple of heavy hitter skills.

Supporting Skills

Your heavy hitter core skills need backup - three or four supporting skills that need to be solidly above average…but don’t need to be exceptional.

Some of these are just the basics you need to get the job done. For Mark Rober that’s being able to make videos. He’s way above average but not off-the-charts exceptional. Sometimes these supporting skills are amplifiers which take one of your core skills and make it way better. Take world-class technical expertise and pair it with solid writing skills…now you’re able to leverage that expertise and make it pop.

Key #3: Unlikely Combinations

One particularly good strategy for building a unique stack is to combine skills that rarely show up together. This doesn’t have to be a wild combination like a chef who's also an astronaut. (Though if you are a chef-astronaut, please DM me - I have questions about zero-gravity soufflés.) What matters is finding skills that are not commonly seen together in the same person.

Think about Mark Rober. Engineering knowledge and video production skills? Not a common combo. Engineers with great on-screen charisma and a sense of humor? Also, not that common (hey, engineers don’t take it personally — some of us are pretty cool). Ramit Sethi combines personal finance and psychology — an uncommon combination. For Anthony Bourdain it’s cooking and storytelling — also not commonly seen together.

Here's the thing: it's fine to have some obvious skill pairings in your stack. If you're a developer, knowing both frontend and backend makes total sense - that's gonna help you build better products. But if that's all you've got, you're swimming in a crowded pool. You get the uniqueness when you add in unexpected elements.

Key #4: Hard Skills - the Scarcity Advantage

Another way to get to that uniqueness that we’re looking for is to add in difficult, hard-to-acquire skills. It's basic supply and demand (yeah, that concept from economics class actually helps here). Hard skills mean fewer competitors — you’re using scarcity to your advantage.

Adding difficult skills is…well, hard. (Shocking insight, I know.) But that’s exactly why it’s valuable. While everyone else is looking for shortcuts, you’re taking the path that’s unpopular precisely because it’s difficult. And that’s the point.

So what's the smart way to pick hard skills? Ask yourself: what's hard for most people but feels oddly easy for you? That's your unfair advantage. Start there.

Key #5: The Hidden Gold Mine — Soft Skills, Character Traits and Taste

We all know about hard skills. The technical stuff. The expertise. The specialized knowledge. We grind away at these, take courses, get certificates. We know how to level up.

But when it comes to skill stacks we want to think of ‘skill’ much more broadly. I'm talking about soft skills, character traits, and taste. These are gold hiding in plain sight. We totally overlook them because they're just "who we are”. It's like having a superpower and thinking “oh, this old thing? Everyone can fly, right?”

Character traits and soft skills such as charisma, enthusiasm and empathy act as multipliers that make other skills exponentially more valuable. Shaan Puri, host of the My First Million podcast, is always looking for those undervalued skills like "enthusiasm" or "storytelling". He gives the example of “Miss Excel”. She's this woman named Kat who makes learning Microsoft Excel fun and easy. (Yeah, you read that right - Excel and fun in the same sentence.) She's got 1.1 Million Instagram followers and has trained more than a million people in Excel. Wild. You know what makes Kat special? Pure enthusiasm. Watch her Instagram reels - her energy is infectious. It is a world-class skill that powers her whole stack.

Taste is your ability to discern what's good and what isn't. Taste matters - a lot. Take for instance, Rick Rubin. He’s the legendary music producer behind Adele, Lady Gaga, the Beastie Boys, Kanye West, Jay-Z….you get the idea. In an interview with 60 minutes Rick declared the he has “no musical ability” and that he doesn’t know how to play a single instrument. And yet, he’s the guy the big acts go to. Why? Because he has great taste. He knows what’s good and he knows what’s true for that artist.

Or take MKBHD (Marques Brownlee) — he’s the biggest tech reviewer on YouTube because people trust his taste. That taste in what makes a good product is what has made him one of the most powerful people in all of tech. If he’s particularly critical about a product that product is effectively dead.

The message is this: don't ignore soft skills, character traits, or taste. In fact, in the age of AI these skills are going to be significantly more important. And, contrary to what most people think, these skills can be developed just like conventional skills. So lean into them — they might just be the secret ingredient that makes your technical skills unstoppable.

Create Real Value by Solving a Real Problem

Here's the thing: your amazing skills mean nothing if they don't actually help anyone. You need to solve real problems for real people.

One of the case studies I’ve got in part 3 is about Lenny Rachitsky. His newsletter “Lenny’s Newsletter” (yep, that’s really what it’s called) is the #1 business newsletter on Substack. And his podcast “Lenny’s Podcast” (again, what a name) is one of the top business podcasts. I dunk on the name but once you listen to Lenny for a while you realize that it’s perfect. Lenny is the most unassuming guy and that leads to super-high levels of trust.

With Lenny, it’s all value bombs — one after the next after the next. He brings in the best product managers and executives in the tech world and they talk about what works and what doesn’t. Real solutions to real problems. Lessons learned. If you’re a product manager or executive in tech his podcast is a must-listen. You’re learning how to make better decisions and run better teams…which leads to better products shipped out more rapidly. And that then increases the value of the product manager both in their company and in the industry as a whole. It’s a win-win.

All good stacks deliver great value:

• Mark Rober delivers inspiration to the next generation of engineers through mind-blowing projects where he builds everything from scratch.

• Ramit Sethi transforms how young professionals make financial decisions so they can make and save more money.

• Grant Sanderson takes complex math concepts and makes them clear and beautiful for those who love math turning confusion into “aha” moments.

At first, you may not know how you'll provide value. That’s okay…Mark Rober didn't. He just knew what was cool and fun, and he leaned into his engineering background. The value emerged naturally. But, you should have a hypothesis…some idea of where it could lead. This hypothesis will help you make decisions on which skills to combine….and then you’ll adjust as you go.

Who Is This For? Audience Matters

Let's talk about who you're actually helping. Because 'everyone' is not an answer. That's like being a restaurant that serves 'food' - it's technically true but totally useless. You need to know who 'your people' are and their specific headaches.

Let’s take a hypothetical example. You're an accountant who specializes in pro athletes. These aren't your typical tax returns - we're talking multi-state complications, endorsement deals, and yes, expensing those extra-large shoes. If you're the accountant who understands these specific challenges, that specialized expertise is valuable. That knowledge of who you’re serving is part of your stack.

There’s one more important piece to the value part of the equation…making sure that others know about the value you can provide. Ramit Sethi’s case is the perfect example of this…

Cracking Ramit’s Code

Let’s break down Ramit Sethi’s skill stack because it reveals some important lessons that aren’t immediately evident:

The starting pool is people with good personal finance knowledge in the U.S.: 10 million. Ramit is in the top 15% of those leaving us with 1.5 million.

Of those, let say 60%, or 900K, can simplify complex financial topics. Ramit is in the top 10% of that group leaving 90K.

Of those 90K about 20% could write persuasively leaving us with 18K. Ramit would be in the top 5% of that group leaving about 1000 people.

Of those about 10% — or 100 — would also have an understanding of psychology and could use it to motivate people to make or save more money. Ramit is in the top 10% of that group leaving 10.

What this tells us is that about 1000 people in the United States have the ability to write a book about personal finance that simplifies complex financial topics well and is written in a persuasive way. That seems about right since there are about 500 personal finance books published every year in the U.S.. Now, adding in the understanding of psychology and how it affects financial success there are about 10 people left. That’s Ramit’s competition….he’s not in a category of one.

And book publishing definitely follows a power law effect. If there are 10 authors with basically the same book: 1 will have big success, 2 will break even, and 7 will fail miserably.

So, Ramit has about a 10% chance of success. Not great…that is, until we add in Ramit’s world-class marketing and brand building skill. About four of the ten authors will be decent at marketing but Ramit is world class (top 1%) and so this now puts him in a category of one and so he wins. He has the best seller that sells millions of copies.

Want more proof of this in the real world? Take James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” and compare it to B.J. Fogg’s book “Tiny Habits”. “Atomic Habits” is one of the best selling non-fiction self-help books of all time with more than 20 million copies sold. It’s a great book and yet “Tiny Habits” is, in my opinion, an even better book. And its author, B.J. Fogg, is a true world expert in habits running a behaviour lab at Stanford University. So, why did James Clear win? Why does everyone have a copy of “Atomic Habits” while few have heard of “Tiny Habits”?

The difference is that James Clear is world class at marketing (top 0.1%). Go and listen to the interview of James on the Tim Ferriss podcast…it’s immediately clear that he’s a master. Type “habits” into Google and see whose content is at the top of the list. It’s James — he’s #1 for this incredibly difficult-to-rank-for keyword. James Clear understands, maybe as well as anyone, that there are these “winner-takes-most” effects and so he’s built a powerful, complete skill stack and so he wins.

The lesson: most of the skills in your skill stack should directly contribute to providing unique value to a customer but you also should take a broad view of the word “value” to also include things like marketing that bring attention to and build trust in your value.

No Stack Killers

When Warren Buffett was a student going to Colombia Business school he was so afraid of speaking in front of a group that he chose his classes based on whether or not he’d have to speak. "I would get physically ill if I even thought about having to do it." he says.

But Buffett’s a smart guy — he knew that his fear, and the communication skills that he lacked, were holding him back. And so he did something about it — he took Dale Carnegie’s speaking course and then volunteered to teach at the University of Omaha so that he’d build those skills.

We all have weaknesses. Things we avoid, things we struggle with. And you know what, that’s fine — we’re not trying to be generalists here. We want to spend our time building up our strengths — those core skills that turn our stack into something unique and valuable. But some weaknesses can undermine the whole stack rendering it weak and powerless. We can’t ignore these stack killers.

Here are the three most dangerous stack killers I’ve observed:

Can’t Tell Your Story — If you can’t communicate your value or express what you can do then it doesn’t matter how good you are at everything else. Your ability to articulate what you do and why it matters is as crucial as the skills themselves.

Can’t Finish — Half-completed projects are the graveyard of potential. That groundbreaking algorithm you're perpetually tweaking? That revolutionary app you're eternally architecting? I get it - your code is your baby. But at some point, the baby needs to leave the house and get a job.

Stuck in Stealth Mode — The world's best skill stack is worthless if you keep it to yourself. Those three videos you’ve put together but haven’t posted. That blog post sitting silently in a file on your computer. That app you’re “polishing”. At some point, you have to hit publish and let the world see your work.

Here's the good news: you don't need to turn your weaknesses into strengths. You just need to prevent them from being fatal flaws. Buffett didn't become a world-class orator - he became good enough that his speaking ability no longer held him back. It let the world get access to his world class thinking. That's the goal: build these supporting skills to the point where they enable rather than undermine your core strengths.

What’s Next…

Building a powerful skill stack isn't about collecting random skills like they’re Boy Scout badges. And it’s certainly not trying to master everything. It's about strategically combining two or three core strengths with the right supporting skills to create something unique and valuable. It’s about taking a broad view of the word “skill” to incorporate key aspects of your personality and your taste in what’s good to super-charge your technical abilities. It's about finding that combination that puts you in a category of one and frees you from the hamster wheel.

But how do you figure out what skills to include in your stack? In Part 3, we'll explore concrete strategies for identifying your core strengths, choosing the right skills to develop, and combining them into something that puts you in a category of one. We'll examine case studies of those who've broken free from the pack so you can develop a feel for what a great skill stack looks like. I’ll see you there.

Being great at one thing isn't enough anymore. Every field is packed with talented people doing amazing work. So why do some people with seemingly average talent break through while others with equal - if not greater - ability remain stuck?

I think Mark Rober has the answer.

If you don’t know who Mark Rober is let me introduce you. He’s a former NASA engineer who has taken over YouTube with his engineering-based videos that both entertain and educate. The numbers are impressive: he gets an average of more than 28 million views per video — even higher than Mr. Beast. And every year over the last 7 years, Mark has had at least one video with more than 50 million views and none with less than 10 million. Extraordinary.

I’ve been reverse-engineering what it is that makes Mark Rober special and I think I’ve found the formula.

Why Mark Wins

Mark isn’t the best engineer in the world and he’s not the best YouTuber. But no one on Earth can do what Mark Rober does. He’s in a category of one. He has a unique combination of skills that allow him to craft high quality, fun videos with ingenious concepts — squirrel obstacle courses, glitter bombs to catch unsuspecting porch pirates — you get the idea. Throughout, he weaves in engineering by building everything from scratch. He does it in a way that’s approachable and appealing. And there’s real value there — he makes kids want to take up engineering and science. And Mark himself is charismatic, funny, and enthusiastic. He’s a smart guy doing cool stuff. It’s inspiring.

But there’s a harsh truth buried in Mark’s success. The fact is that the world disproportionately rewards those that are the best at something. There are “winner-takes-most” power law dynamics involved. It’s ruthless. And since Mark is a category of one he has a monopoly. So, yeah, he’s gonna win. And because of that, he’s gonna get most of the reward.

So what about you and I? How do we become a category of one? How do we become the one that gets the out-sized reward?

Becoming a Category of One
(No Superhero Cape Required)

So, what is it about Mark’s skills that makes him unique? Is he the best engineer in the world? No, certainly not. He seems very strong so I’m going to place him in the top 10%. What about making YouTube videos — production value and so on? Is he the best at that? No, lots of people can do that. Mark certainly is special at coming up with unforgettable concepts for his videos — I put him in the top 0.5% of YouTubers for that. Yet that world class level skill on one thing alone is not enough.

The magic lies in the combination. It’s the whole “stack” of skills that makes it work — not any one skill on it’s own.

Let's break down the math. These numbers are not exact, of course, but I think they’re decent estimates:

The starting pool is people who can create quality YouTube videos (production value etc.): 60 million. Mark is in the top 30% of those leaving us with 18 million.

Of those, let’s say half — 9 million — can whip up a solid video concept and packaging (title, thumbnail, etc.). Mark is in the top 0.5% of that group leaving about 50K people.

Of those 50K people about 1% could provide good engineering content for a mass audience leaving 500 people. Mark would be in the top 5% of that group and so that leaves 25 people.

Of those 25 maybe 20% — or 5 — of them would have decent on-screen charisma and sense of humour. Mark is in the top 1% of that group.

That leaves just one person — Mark Rober.

This is how you become a category of one: by stacking skills — some common, some rare. You don’t need to be a master at everything. Some skills you’re ‘good’ at (top 20-30%) and for a couple you’re world-class (top 1% or 0.1%). But here’s the key: when combined strategically, those skills create something no one else can match.

Once you start looking, you see skill stacks everywhere:

MKBHD pairs impeccable taste with magnetic on-screen presence making him tech's most trusted and influential reviewer.

Lenny Rachitsky combines deep product management expertise with an unmatched network and fantastic curation enabling him to write the #1 business newsletter on Substack.

Ramit Sethi merges financial knowledge with psychology and world-class marketing to build his multi-million dollar “I Will Make You Rich” empire.

Naval Ravikant blends first principles insight and the ability to compress it down to essential truths to become Silicon Valley’s trusted source of wisdom.

Each has crafted their own unique combination of skills. Each a category of one.

The Formula

After spending way too many hours reverse-engineering people's success here's what I've figured out is the formula. You want to combine, create and dominate:

1. Combine skills to make a unique ‘stack’.

2. Create value solving real-world problems.

3. Dominate by being a category of one.

In other words, don’t be the best, be the only.

So here's my challenge to you: start building your skill stack. Not by chance, but by choice. With intention. With purpose. Start with things you’re good at. Follow your curiosity. Build those few things to world class levels and then figure out how to combine them into something special.

Will it be easy? Nope. You won’t know which skills to combine. You'll struggle to find that unique value only you can provide. But it’s the path to extraordinary success. The alternative? Standing still while others soar past you.

If you want to learn more, in Part 2 we'll dive deep into the practical aspects of building your stack - including specific strategies for combining skills, real-world case studies of people who've mastered this approach, and concrete steps you can take to start building your own category of one. We'll explore not just what makes a good stack, but how to systematically build one that puts you in a position to win.

Subscribe now

This is a unique moment in time where ambitious, technically-minded people can achieve extraordinary things. AI is redefining what's possible. A solo creator with the right skills and mindset can now build what used to require an entire team. The leverage is insane. The possibilities unlimited.

In this context, I've made my choice: I'm pursuing difficult, audacious goals where success is feasible but highly uncertain. You know, the kind where your heart races with both excitement and a bit of panic. (That feeling where your ambition is writing checks your current skills can't cash.)

The Audacity Arc is where these forces converge - the unprecedented opportunity of this moment and the deliberate pursuit of extraordinary outcomes. It's my attempt to share the frameworks and strategies I've learned as I reach to do the extraordinary in this new, rapidly evolving context.

The path that gets you to "above average" success isn't good enough here. Just cranking up the hustle to 11 isn't going to cut it. The path to extraordinary outcomes requires fundamentally different skills, mindsets, and approaches.

This newsletter is my attempt to map this path - to identify and develop the critical elements necessary to succeed at this elevated level. I'm synthesizing what I've learned from others, and combining it with my own unique insights - both the high-level frameworks and the concrete, practical tools that actually work.

Who This is For

This newsletter is for ambitious builders and creators - the engineers and developers who see the possibilities in this moment. You value First Principles thinking and seek insights that go beyond conventional wisdom. You're naturally skeptical and think independently, preferring depth over surface-level analysis. In other words, you're the person people come to when they need real answers, not just motivational quotes.

Most importantly, you're ready to push beyond "above average" to pursue something extraordinary. You don't just want marginally better results - you want to create breakthrough outcomes. The kind that makes people ask "wait, how did you do that?"

If this resonates with you, start with any article that catches your interest (lots more coming soon). You'll quickly know if this is the right place for you.

What to Expect

Here's what you can expect from this newsletter:

- Deep dives into frameworks for achieving extraordinary outcomes.

- A mix of high-level principles and concrete, practical strategies that actually work.

- Both comprehensive analysis pieces and focused tactical guides.

- Lessons synthesized from studying those who've achieved the extraordinary, combined with unique insights from my own journey.

- Frameworks for bridging the gap between understanding and action - because information without implementation is worthless.

I aim to publish at least weekly, with a mix of free and paid content. My goal is to make the content so valuable that subscribing becomes obvious - but hey, you'll be the judge of that.

I have two motivations for writing this newsletter. First, I'm doing it for myself. As Paul Graham said, writing is thinking. It forces me to question assumptions and pressure-test ideas. It's like a code review for your brain - you think something's solid until you have to explain it to someone else.

Second, I’m trying to have an impact. I think of these articles as pebbles dropped in a pond. My hope is that the waves ripple out as you take the ideas into the real world and turn them into action and results. New opportunities are becoming possible every day. Let's seize them and make the extraordinary happen.