Mindset

Linear

We default to linear thinking in an exponential universe. If linear thinking is status quo, opportunity awaits those who augment their work through an exponential perspective.

When signals of traction, product-market-fit, and lasting momentum emerge, seek to understand how each part of your business affects the overall system. This awareness helps us to understand and optimize what must continue to work. This alertness also leads to stability that tempts most to coast along a linear path, but the goal is not more of the same. While it’s important to respect past success, such nostalgia does not guarantee the same results within a neon future characterized by constant change.

As discussed in the Community chapter of You Don’t Need This Book, the most accessible way to go beyond our own linear capabilities is through community. The collisions of so much unknown capacity is how community allows us all to do more with less. As we invest time into accelerating others, our generosity, curiosity, initiative, and adaptability activate diversified trust channels. Fresh feedback from more perspectives then rewards a willingness to experiment.

When we apply integrity long-term, the combination of new variables formulates an exponential equation. New opportunities emerge, with less activities that trade time for money. As we rent less time to others, our capacity grows. Each time we find a new gear, the system unfolds to release personal bandwidth, and the rising slope of impact, sense of peace, and happiness is set free to rapidly ascend.

Converting a slope of work from linear to exponential is not done all at once. Fortunately, we play for 80 hours to avoid working 40, and the creative spirit is nourished by a peculiar lack of routine. As we find more ways to earn with our mind and not our time, The Headline Trap will remain a distraction. This makes it easy to assume it takes luck, but we make our own luck with every action.

Extra Shot

Work Hard = Get Smarter

Learn to maintain what works, then build non-linear lines betwixt time and revenue by feeding new ideas, talent, collisions, and experiences into the system.

Brewed From Within
#63 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Blocked

“How do you write every week for three years?”

Endless community-driven experiences, the privilege of time, building into connecting things I care about, metrics beyond money, publishing YDNTB, staying curious, finding comfort in uncertainty, and an efficiency that comes with consistency helps me continue to articulate written relics I’ll always be proud of.

Writing has become a part of my practice, but it’s not easy and never will be. Life is beautifully busy and what happens when there’s seemingly nothing to write about?

Can I call it writer’s block and hope nobody cares when Roasted Reflections doesn’t land in their inbox on Wednesday? No. Writer’s block is an illusion. An excuse not to ship. This paralysis is a symptom of prioritization within our practice.

Extra Shot

Don’t wait for inspiration.
Let the work inspire you.

Whether you listen to yourself in private (journalling) or share your heart in public, when you know you’re going to get it done, you become more consciously introspective. You stay more in-tune with what needs to be synthesized, while recursion and the indexing effect helps sustain a healthy obsession. Even when the moment’s thesis is not obvious, you’re strong enough to explore what needs to be said. This becomes a habit that invites anyone to reach higher without fearing the generous act of making a ruckus by shipping the art.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Uncertainty

Comfort with the unknown is not common. Uncertainty feels heavy when we’re not used to the mental weight. This makes juggling uncertainty a healthy exercise. Start with small things that don’t matter. Let the chef select your dinner, say yes without a plan, or try new ways to stand out at a public event.

What’s the point of such preparation? The freedom to build your own reality requires sacrifice, and the sense of certainty holds us back from where we want to be.

This appears to be dramatic, but when it comes to our work, certainty is often an illusion contrived by the industrial age. The “safe” position in an existing organization is one decision away from a broken promise. The employee’s willingness to play it safe may extend a sense of temporary security, but that choice makes anyone easy to replace with cheaper labor, faster tools, and advancing technology.

Reliable outcomes seem safe, but indispensability thrives when comfort zones are expanded. This does not mean irrational decisions loaded with risk. This is showing up, keeping a promise, and remaining consistent to honor the time we have on stage. It’s feeling what others cannot see. It’s inviting a challenge, gradually leaning into what’s hard, and coordinating momentum, even when uncertainties exist.

Extra Shot
Comfort in the unknown creates space
to see potential cloaked by uncertainty.

As we find rhythm by sequencing simple steps, more complicated moves can be introduced. With practice, contentment combined with confidence will have us dancing with the uncertainties that hold others back.

Brewed From Within
#92 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Tinker

When technology moves so fast, we’ll always feel behind, but that is your invitation to tinker.

Instead of letting the unknown scare us, we can use curiosity to prompt action. Even when life feels occupied by existing responsibilities, there’s more room to push further. To prove it, hold your arm as high as you can. Now, hold your arm higher!

Tinkering requires initiative. Thankfully, we all have extra gears to avoid feeling like we left something on the table. Yes, the barriers of busy are unavoidable, comfortable feels safe, and easy is nice. But why not turn a few knobs to let that idea breathe, to see your idea twinkle in the wild.

Extra Shot

An early no beats a long, wrong yes.

It’s amazing how much happens by showing up and activating a few early moves. When we accept an invitation to tinker, financial capital can speed things up, but time is required to make something exist.

While more of everything will be needed to make it better, thinking about commercialization as being a season of exploration versus a strategic goal reduces weight and welcomes smaller steps toward progress.

If you’re having a hard time finding inspiration or if excuses keep you saying someday, avoid isolation and force yourself into environments where others are tinkering too. Activity within a startup community can provide energizing human, intellectual, and network capital. Conferences are cool, but when was the last time you attended a multi-day, hands-on hackathon? Classrooms, skill-building workshops, industry groups, maker spaces, coworking, and networking events also have people tinkering together.

As you create more than you consume around others doing the same, you’ll find energy, direction, and opportunities. You’ll feel less alone, surprise yourself, push past barriers, and collide with people able to help.

Whether it’s at home or in public, tinkering celebrates pure wonder and will nourish your innovative spirit. Even if the answer is no, at least you’ll know.

Brewed From Within
#69 📖 Technology

By Ben McDougal, ago

StArtist

Does everyone have a creative spirit?

Siobhan Spain, former director of Mainframe Studios, joins us to talk about the Des Moines StArtist Community and the origin stories of the largest non-profit studio building in the nation. We also discuss how to brew culture from within, First Fridays, exploring new technologies, monthly web3dsm events, artificial intelligence, artists in residencies, and the diffusing value of your brain on art.

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By Ben McDougal, ago