A loved one has
an amazing memory.
He flew through school
using this gift.
But now he’s 40 something.
He’s stressed.
He has numerous projects
on the go.
And his memory is overburdened.
A great memory
doesn’t scale,
not like systems can.
When I suggest
he rely on systems instead,
he sees that as an insult,
a suggestion of weakness.
“In school, we harangue kids
to be more careful,
and spend approximately zero time
teaching them
to build better systems instead.
We ignore checklists and processes
because we’ve been taught
that they’re beneath us.
Instead of reacting to an error with,
“I need to be more careful,”
we can respond with,
“I can build a better system.””
Systems scale.
Human abilities do not.
Build in systems
and then use them.