This Week’s ABC

📖 Advice: First Principles x Busy Life

People often ask me:

I have a lot going on.

It’s like my brain has 47 tabs open at once:

• Executive-level day job — leading a transformation initiative across 1,600 engineers
• Bootstrapping Epistemic Me — juggling sales pipeline, marketing engine, partnerships, and product work

And then the life stuff:

• Health — trying to keep my health optimal, and trying to further my elite rock climbing dreams while maintaining a great longevity protocol
• Family — emotional and financial support in managing the stress of my brother’s health, and recently family dog’s health and vet bills, and other not so fun family dynamics
• Housing — dealing with contractors, inspectors, and an HOA for repair/remodel work
• Everything else — keeping my home clean, laundry, food, and maintaining some semblance of a social life (I’m trying)

If you’re reading this newsletter, you’re probably also of the category of people afflicted with ambition and choosing to do more—just because.

So maybe you also feel like you have 47 tabs open in your brain all the time.

Here’s how I think about my juggling, from first principles.

It leaves me feeling good about how I invest my time—for the most part (it’s a juggle after all!).

Step 1: What is the goal?

→ I want Epistemic Me to succeed.

→ To succeed, the business must grow.

→ Growth requires revenue.

→ Revenue comes from customers.

→ Customers buy value.

So—who creates that value?

We do.

Me and my Co-Founder, Jonathan.

No one else.

“To escape the illusion of knowledge, you must return to the naked truth of what you know for certain.” —James Clear“How do you decide where to spend your time?”

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Richard Feynman## Step 2: Where does that value come from?

Time and energy.

Time and energy applied to…

→ The insight, the code, the product design, the vision.

→ To talk to users.

→ To ship experiments.

→ To reflect, pivot, adapt.

• Build the right things
• Talk to the right users
• Run the right experiments
• Stay radically clear-headed (or at least, try)

Advice: My first principles for a busy life

Breakthrough: Elon’s recent YC talk, where he talks about first principles and more

Step 3: What gives me time and energy?

Money helps—it buys back time and reduces friction.

But I’m still bootstrapping. Until cash flow hits positive, my time and energy are limited and precious.

So I have to ask:

Health.

All of it—physical, mental, emotional.

Without it, the engine fails.

Think about it:

• No health + money = broken engine
• Health + no money = engine still runs

In fact, with better health, I find I have more capacity for critical reasoning and thinking.

I mean, if I were dead or incapacitated in the hospital, could I work on Epistemic Me?

Could I be a good brother or son?

Of course not.

So health is number one.

The 2 Metrics That Rule My Time

Once that’s in place, I zoom out to where my time and energy go—specifically, toward two levers that help me as a clear mental model:

CLV: Am I increasing the value of what we deliver? (Product, insights, vision, code, outcomes)

CAC: Am I lowering the cost of getting it into the right hands? (Marketing engine, content flywheel, sales pipeline, partnerships)

All of my activities for Epistemic Me go towards furthering these two metrics at the end of the day.

I regularly review the ratio of time and energy spent, and mentally think about it from these 2 vectors.

1. Health
2. Value creation
3. Value distribution

I do a weekly gut-check against these.

If it doesn’t touch Health, CLV or CAC, it’s noise.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life… and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” —Steve JobsSo my time and energy must feed that core: “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” —Jim RohnWhat else is in my control?

“What gets measured gets managed.” —Peter DruckerBetter health → more quality thoughts → more quality execution.

From first principles, I always keep my health number 1.

Health first, CLV and CAC next.