Stack Reduction

For the sake of staying agile and fit (against the environment), you know that as a software writer working in a fast-evolving industry, you best reduce the size of your tech stack. Fewer dependencies, fewer components, fewer systems. You want to avoid being brittle, exposed, immobile.

The same goes with our stack of beliefs, conclusions, and mental models.

For the sake of staying agile and fit (against the environment), you know that as a human going through a fast-evolving society, you best reduce the size of your mental stack. Fewer ideologies, fewer absolutes, fewer certainties. You want to avoid being brittle, exposed, immobile.

That said, the optimal stack size isn’t zero.

And so, when people make progress, away from a thick stack that got them stuck, they will shed whatever was part of the past. They will reduce the size of their stack, they will get to the bottom of what’s true, and then they will want to rebuild.

You can show agility and fitness from the quality of your own example, and with a posture of service, when people are ready to take the same scary road, to shed beliefs that no longer work and be open to ideas that will, they will come to you for help.

You might have to wait a while, but you’ll be surprised, because when they come to you, you’ll have no competition.