Philosophy
"C'est très bien en pratique, mais cela ne marchera jamais en théorie."
"It's all very well in practice, but it will never work in theory."
— French management saying
This page is about systems that survive impact, not ones that win beauty contests.
Most frameworks break when they encounter real conditions. A 9-step productivity system doesn’t survive a sick kid, bad Wi-Fi, and three back-to-back meetings.
The Mental Stack is for everything else. When you're carrying too much, when the inputs won't stop, when that elegant system you built last month is now just another thing to maintain. Maybe it'll help you honestly assess your own mental stack.
Core Insights
Practice wins over theory. What works in real conditions matters more than what should work in ideal ones.
Iteration is a superpower. Something imperfect built today beats something perfect planned forever.
People are well-buffered systems. We're more resilient than we think, but we still need circuit breakers.
Focus on signal, not noise. Most inputs add zero value. The skill is filtering, not processing faster.
You are not your backlog. Value creation beats process optimization. Focus on what ships, not what's documented.
Maintenance is technical debt. Every system you build becomes something you have to support. Choose carefully.
Operating Principles
Less but better
Instead of trying to add something, try to understand where the value lies. Constraint enables choice.
Bias toward action
Start before ready. Get to a tangible product. Iteration takes you from nothing to something.
Understand your strengths
Know what energizes you versus what drains you. Build systems that work with your nature, not against it.
Differentiate hard from toxic
Hard and worth it feels different from toxic and pointless. Learn to tell the difference.
Gall’s Law applies
Gall’s Law applies: start with something simple that works. Pareto filters what’s worth keeping. If it only works in theory, it doesn’t belong here.
Reality Check
This isn't optimization. The goal isn't peak performance. It's sustainable operation under real conditions.
Systems will break. Plan for recovery, not perfection. Resilience beats rigidity.
You probably don't need another tool. Most problems aren't solved by adding complexity—they're solved by removing it.
Your stack will look different. These are observations, not prescriptions. Take what works, ignore the rest.
Elegant > complex. Complexity is easy. The hard part is removing what isn’t essential.
The false choice: Either optimize everything or burn out trying.
The actual choice is building systems that work with human limitations instead of against them. Start with something that works. Then build from there.
The only real question: What part of your stack still works under pressure?