let’s talk about leverage.

imagine you need to open a bottle. you grab a bottle opener.

you push down a just little, the cap comes flying off.

cool .. but you probably aren’t here to increase raw strength

fair, how about this:

a teacher tutoring 1 kid for an hour vs recording 1 lesson that teaches 100 kids

same effort. 100x the result.

that’s leverage. small input, massive output.

when i was 12 i started a YouTube channel for tech reviews (i wanted companies to send me free shit)

each video took the same time to make. but some got 10k views. others got 50.

same input. wildly different output.

that was leverage. i just didn’t have the word for it yet.

but i did become obsessed with that feeling. disproportionate results. making something once that pays forever. things that work while you sleep.

(and got super lucky that computers and gadgets were my thing)

the old levers

for most of history, there were two levers:

• labor — hire people to work for you
• capital — use money to make money

want to build a pyramid? 100,000 workers. want to build a railroad? millions in capital.

big inputs. big outputs. but the ratio wasn’t that crazy.

then the internet happened.

the new levers

we got two higher forms of leverage:

• code — software that runs infinitely at zero cost
• media — content that reaches millions while you sleep

suddenly one person could write software serving a billion users. one person could make a video reaching 50 million people. a new kind of company was born.

• instagram: 13 employees → $1 billion
• whatsapp: 55 employees → $19 billion

the inputs got tinier. while the outputs got even bigger.

and now our new favorite buzzword, AI.

the newest lever

welcome to the future of leverage:

• judgment — making the correct highly leveraged decisions

let’s say you had taste. you could solve painful problems in a way people understood

but you still needed MONTHS to write the code, make the content, build systems

.. AI just closed that gap

AI compressed the time between having good judgment and seeing results.

i can ship a series of good decisions in days now

the input is no longer the work. it’s the decision.

and that is an incredibly important distinction. because ..

• if you were decent? → you’re now good
• if you were good? → you’re now 10x faster
• if you were great? → you’re about to eat everyone’s lunch

but theres a catch!

labor can really f*ck this up

why??

fifty years ago, labor was incredible leverage. hire 100 people, get maybe 70-80x the output (accounting for coordination, bad hires, bureaucracy, etc). worth it.

not today.

and not because people are bad. but because the more people you add, the longer it usually takes to make decisions.

you have an idea. but now you need a meeting. alignment. a stakeholder is OOO. you dont have permission.

this is bad if (and only if) your decisions are really, really good. so leveling up your skills matters more than ever right now to make good decisions!

your north star is simple: make good decisions and act on them as fast as possible.

since actual work getting done is 100x faster with AI, any friction you face means you miss out on this

so be extremely careful

with leverage this high .. every wrong move costs you more than ever

these are the new rules of leverage