tl;dr: on the MindsetOS upgrade that is required as we age.

Maybe it’s just my stage of life, I don’t know, but I’m starting to appreciate more and more how the programs I’ve built my life upon until now are starting to work less and less.

Diminishing marginal returns.

One of the most obvious is sleep.

For years, the program was: sleep is an afterthought and the bare minimum is all I need.

Now, I am coming face to face with the reality that I just need more of it.

Another is the coffee/caffeine addiction.

The old program was: drink as much coffee as you can daily to power through each day and be proud of it.

Now, it’s obvious that coffee also gives diminshing marginal returns.

What is less obvious is what the new programs are. Sleep discipline is one of them. Just a cup of two or coffee is another.

But what I’m really taking about are the “Mindset” programs that serve as the “operating system” for daily activities.

Not necessarily the “fixed” vs. “growth” mindset of Carol Dweck, but more the “results come from hours in front of a screen” vs. “results come from focused attention on the problem.”

The former is more of the “brute force” approach that yields 80-100 hour work weeks.

The latter is from the school of “Measure What Matters” that OKRs make real.

The hard part isn’t recognizing that the old programs are broken or that the new programs are better/necessary.

The hard part is building the atomic habits that create the new MindsetOS.