@zachpogrob

When intimidated by competition, ask: 'Are these people genuinely all-in, or are they attending weddings, taking vacations, and going home at 5pm?' If the latter, ignore them as competitors.

Stop trying random things hoping something sticks. Look backwards: What did your 10-year-old self love? What do you have to force yourself to stop doing? That is the key.

If you need discipline to do something, it is probably not your thing. Keep searching for the activity you have to force yourself to stop. The test: can you NOT do this thing for a week? If abstaining is hard, it might be obsession.

Calculate your remaining weeks. Every week of mediocrity is irretrievable. When facing a choice between comfort and action, remember: sitting around fast-forwards through a wasted life.

When starting something with no proof it will work, recognize that all great things began this way. The absence of evidence is not disqualifying - it is normal for the early stage of anything meaningful.

Evaluate relationships by their effect on output and obsession. Does this person amplify everything, or does drama and maintenance drain focus? If neutral or negative, the relationship is actually a liability.

When tempted to chase results (money, followers, relationships), redirect attention to the work itself. The picture of the player focused on the game, not the crowd, explains both success and magnetism.

When experiencing extreme difficulty, reframe it as qualification, not disqualification. Ask 'What is this preparing me for?' rather than 'Why is this happening to me?'

Climb various professional hills through serious engagement, not dabbling. Notice which ones feel like grinding uphill versus which ones feel like rolling downhill despite difficulty. The downhill is your path.

Stop asking 'what do I want to be?' and start asking 'what do I want to create?' Do not aspire to be a filmmaker - just make films. The making creates the identity.

When stuck and incremental changes have failed, consider whether accumulated obligations, identities, and possessions are creating friction against new directions. If yes, destruction may be required to create space.

Test your obsession by noticing your relationship with time. If hours disappear without noticing and days blur together because every day is devoted to the same thing, you are obsessed. If you watch the clock, you are not.

Seek differentiation through unusual inputs rather than competing on execution of common ideas. Read books off the beaten path. Take unconventional routes. Your unique mistakes become unique insights.

When planning timelines, ask whether you are spreading work over time due to genuine constraints or due to lack of intensity. Often the constraint is will, not physics. 10 miles per day makes marathon distances routine.

Seek exposure to world-class work and people deliberately, understanding that this exposure permanently changes what you can accept. Use this ratchet intentionally - once raised, standards rarely lower.

In your late 20s, treat major decisions as semi-permanent. The relationships, career choices, and identity commitments made around 27 shape the next decades. Do not drift through it.

When building audience, do so with future product launch in mind. The content is the appetizer; the product is the meal. 7 years of writing about obsession creates the distribution for the app that embodies it.

When evaluating a project or business idea, check if someone could build it by following a YouTube tutorial. If yes, differentiation will be extremely difficult. The absence of tutorials indicates either a bad idea or a genuinely novel one.

When playing for asymmetric upside with capped downside, throw hail marys repeatedly. Do not save them for emergencies. The expected value of many high-risk attempts exceeds the expected value of playing it safe.

Whatever volume you think is required, multiply by 10. Think you need 10 posts to grow? You need 1000. Think you need 100 sales calls? You need 1000. Calibrate expectations to reality.