Design Personalized Systems to Thrive Beyond Default Structures

Key Quotes

"Well, I was diagnosed when I was 31 and when I look back, there was just so many signs. Well, once I was diagnosed, I learned about this thing called INCUP, which is a terrible acronym, but it's actually a great formula, which is interest, novelty, challenge, urgency, passion. And those words basically mean this is the framework that works for our brain. So it has to be interesting to us, has to be new, we haven't done it before, has to be challenging, so we have to figure something out. There needs to be urgency. So you don't need to have all five of these, but you have to have at least three for it to get our brains going."

Cathryn Lavery explains the INCUP framework as a set of criteria that engage her brain, highlighting that a combination of interest, novelty, challenge, urgency, and passion is key. Lavery notes that having at least three of these elements is necessary to capture her attention and drive action, suggesting a personalized approach to task engagement.

"I call it like your operating system is the default install. So it's, you know, the software your parents gave you, your school gave you. It's kind of like one size fits all, and it doesn't work really well for most people, but they just don't know they can change it."

Lavery uses the analogy of an "operating system" to describe the default systems people operate within, such as those imposed by upbringing or education. She argues that these one-size-fits-all systems are often ineffective for many individuals, who may not realize they have the agency to adapt or create their own systems.

"I think from a Jonathan Four book and he talked about how so many of our skills get stuck. It's not bad, so there's no motivation to get better, but it sure as heck isn't good. It's not great for sure. And so we get stuck in this place where there's not a lot of pain, but it's also not exciting or fun, and it takes a special effort to get out of that."

Lavery references a concept from a book about skills becoming "stuck" at a plateau, describing this state as neither good nor bad, which removes the motivation for improvement. She explains that this "okay plateau" lacks significant pain but also fails to provide excitement, requiring deliberate effort to overcome.

"You said you were tired of writing in your own thing and the Moleskine all the time. So like, you're solving a problem for yourself and seeing if there's a market. And was there a market?"

Jay Papasan prompts Lavery to discuss the genesis of the BestSelf Journal, framing it as a personal problem-solving endeavor that revealed a market need. Papasan questions whether her personal dissatisfaction with existing tools translated into a viable business opportunity.

"I love that learning new skills is like, okay, I got an expansion pack. And so that works well on me. Like any sort of gamification works well on me, whether it's my Apple Watch, whether it's a game. Not a movie. You play a game, you watch a movie. One is active, one is passive. Like that's really significant, and a lot of people are witnessing their lives instead of participating in it."

Lavery expresses her affinity for gamification, likening the acquisition of new skills to receiving an "expansion pack" in a game. She contrasts playing a game with watching a movie, highlighting that active participation, as in gaming, is more engaging and effective than passive observation, a distinction she applies to how people engage with their own lives.

"So it was around the time of going through my divorce and I'm also just kind of checked out a little bit from just the business because I'm I'm not in my most creative headspace. And I come back and realize that, you know, we we hit these revenue goals and it's really tempting to just keep trying to sell products to grow the revenue because, God forbid, you would have a plateau year."

Lavery reflects on a period of personal difficulty, including a divorce, which impacted her business engagement and creativity. She notes the temptation to prioritize revenue growth through product sales, especially to avoid a business plateau, even if it means not focusing on creating truly exceptional products.

"So I made a couple of changes. One thing is like the product and marketing team used to meet every week. And I was like, if we're going to create great products, we're probably not going to do it in a week where we have something to present to the marketing team. So I changed that. And then I also was like, we're going to be a problem company, not a product company. We need to create products to solve problems, but we can solve problems with an email, we could solve problems with a video or with a course or with a physical product."

Lavery details strategic shifts within her company, moving from weekly product and marketing meetings to a more flexible approach to foster product innovation. She emphasizes the transition from being a "product company" to a "problem company," asserting that solutions can manifest in various formats beyond physical products, such as emails, videos, or courses.

"My challenge would be starting a problem log for yourself. So just in your notes app on your phone, that's all you're supposed to do. Start writing down every piece of daily friction that you have, whether it's big or small. It could be having to fill up the air in your tire. That's annoying. So everything is just like, ah, because there and there could be a business idea. It could be something."

Lavery proposes a weekly challenge for listeners: to create a "problem log" in their phone's notes app by recording daily frictions, regardless of their size. She suggests that these logged annoyances can serve as potential business ideas, as businesses often arise from solving problems that individuals encounter.