Your paradigm is your weapon

paradigm | ˈperəˌdīm |

noun

1 a typical example or pattern of something; a model:

• a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject.

Your paradigm is your ultimate competitive advantage.

There more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this is one of life’s fundamental truths.

I spend a lot of time hunting for exceptional founders and founders to be, and my conclusion is that what I am really looking for are unique paradigms.

Inevitably, these have been shaped by the sequence of events that they have lived through, sometimes as a powerful, independent actor but more often as a helpless agonizing object.

Yes, I have noticed that the most impressive entrepreneurs I have gotten to know very often seem to have undergone a fair amount of suffering, which has shaped their paradigm.

Whatever they have lived though in the past has dramatically affected the intensity with which they approach things and the set of problems that they choose to go after.

This cannot be copied unless you live through the same events. And this often leads to what most people describe as irrational behavior which makes for the fun anecdotes we often glorify in the stories of great founders. i.e. Travis Kalanick was one of the highest rated Wii Tennis players in the world, for no seeming good reason apart from the thrill of competition in an oddly specific vertical.

But this behavior is only irrational to the people who do not share this paradigm. To the smaller set of other people who are equally unusual it is perfectly rational. Everyone else is insane for being normal. How could they accept reality as it currently is? It is so awfully broken.

When people talk about the “distortion field” that certain unique founders create around them (Steve Jobs, etc.), what they mean is that for the few hours they are in the company of this founder, they are completely sucked into their way of looking at the world, their paradigm.

That’s why great companies are cults.

Of course what you are working on is the most important thing to humanity ever. You’re so right. Jesus, why doesn’t everyone see this? Why isn’t all the funding and talent going to solving this problem?

This reaction is both correct and incorrect. In the moment it is correct because they are in the presence of someone who believes this to be true but zooming out, there are actually a lot of ideas that can provoke such an extreme reaction. It all depends on who is arguing for them.

I had a similar reaction when I recently saw the I Am Human movie featuring Bryan Johnson and his work in BCI (Brain Computer Interface) technology. The movie features three patients — one blind, another tetraplegic, and one with Parkinson’s, and over the course of the story their condition improves at least marginally thanks to surgical brain implants.

I was so moved and shocked that I cried during the viewing at the Tribeca Film Festival. In that moment, nothing seemed more important. Of ALL the things that you can choose to work on during your life, how could alleviating this type of human suffering not be at the top of the list of what is important?

To this day, I still think it is one of the most important quests out there, even though I now more soberly acknowledge that there are other incredibly important battles being fought by entrepreneurs out there.

You are the result of your life experiences.

There are a lot of very intelligent people in the world. I now value this quality much less.

Paradigm is much more unique.

What makes you dangerous is a dangerous paradigm.