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.

nice .. who cares??

fair, how about this:

a teacher tutoring 1 kid 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 hands to multiply your output
• capital — invest in assets that grow

big inputs. big outputs. 100,000 workers, maybe 100,000x the output. linear.

then the internet happened.

the new levers

we got two higher forms of leverage:

• code — build once, serve millions
• media — create once, influence millions

no longer linear. 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 exponentially bigger.

and now drum roll please .. our new favorite buzzword!

AI

the newest lever

welcome to the future of leverage:

• judgment — taste (correct decisions) deployed through the other levers

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 crush everyone

but WAIT, theres a catch!

labor can really f*ck this up

why??

fifty years ago, labor was the best leverage we had

hire 100 people, get maybe 100x the output. make big things. 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 AI makes execution 100x faster, friction is now your biggest bottleneck

so be extremely careful

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

these are the new rules of leverage