Hi Reader,
In today's Habit Chess Newsletter, I'm sharing the best ideas from reading This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans by Seth Godin.
I've put all the highlights into a Notion doc here if you want to save it for later.
You can also watch or listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.
"Strategy is a philosophy of becoming.
Who will we become?
Who will we be of service to, and who will they help others to become?
This is strategy. Strategy isn't a map. It's a compass."
I love this opening description because it forces you to think about the butterfly effect of your actions—what you do, how it helps others, and how they then help others in turn. A compass gives you direction when you're lost, allowing you to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
"Once your basic needs for food, shelter, and health are met, most people dance with three conflicting desires: affiliation, status, and freedom from fear.
Affiliation is community—fitting in, being liked, affiliation is wearing the right fashion, using the correct salad fork, and knowing the words to the song around the campfire.
Status is always relative—who eats lunch first, who's up and who's down. Freedom from fear is an internal construct. Fear can be used as fuel, but it's more likely to be avoided."
The concept of status stood out to me here. It seems superficial at first glance, but it's a vital part of many systems. Whether we consciously play status games or not, they affect us.
"Most of us don't walk to the stream to fetch the day's water. Instead, we're happy to pay a small fee to get water from a pipe, which comes from a treatment plant, which is part of the city's infrastructure.
We don't try to persuade every person we meet of our status and knowledge. Instead, we paid with time and money to engage with an educational institution that awarded us a certificate in exchange.
And even if we spend our days working as a soloist, we're not alone—we're part of a collective or an industry, a system to take inputs and outputs and turn them into something of value for all participants."
This highlights how technological advancements, like piped water, often become invisible over time. It’s a reminder of how systems make life easier and why collaboration is essential for scaling and thriving.
"Systems are more than built objects.
They are the collision between those objects and the natural world.
They’re the complex interactions of culture, humans engaging with one another, nature, and chaos."
This reminds me that systems evolve—or fail—based on new information. If a system doesn't adapt to reflect the latest insights, it risks becoming obsolete.
"Information changes systems."
This is a simple but powerful reminder. Outdated systems reflect missed opportunities to incorporate new information.
"If you want to grow a garden, you’ll need to plant seeds, but it’s the ecosystem and the climate that determine what happens after that.
Our job is to create the conditions for our project to spread within and across the systems that already exist."
This paints a vivid picture of how success depends on crafting the right conditions. It’s not just about the seed but the environment around it. It also ties back to leveraging existing systems to make your work impactful.
"A game has the following elements: players, rules, scarcity, choices, feedback loops, and outcomes.
Calling the project a game gives us a chance to depersonalize our work, to be more flexible in our approach, and most of all, just to talk about it.
Here are a few things about games that are generally true:
You don't have to enjoy the game for it to be a game.
You're playing a game whether you realize it or not, and seeing the game helps you play it better.
The outcome of a game often has little to do with how much you want to win. Everyone playing the game sees it differently.
Some games are easy to quit; other games are forever.
Not all players follow the same rules or have the same goals, even when playing the same game.
No game stays the same for long, because playing the game changes the game.
Short term gains can lead to long term losses, and vice versa. Sometimes the best way to win is to help others succeed.
Large games are made of smaller games.
Most games are not fair, and some games cannot be won.
The most valuable skills in one game may be useless in another.
Some games become easier as you win, others more difficult.
You don't have to play the game you're offered.
Multiplayer games sometimes conceal themselves as two-player games.
We often spend more time figuring out how to win the game we're in, instead of choosing which game to play in the first place."
Gamifying work can make it more enjoyable and productive. I've done this with time-tracking in Notion, treating every input as a move in a game to measure progress.
"We are all time travelers and farmers. The seeds you plant today won’t grow for weeks or months."
This is a great reminder that patience is key. In an era of instant gratification, planting seeds for the future often feels counterintuitive but is necessary for long-term growth.
"12 slogans: What do we talk about when we talk about strategy? Consider these building blocks.
- The future is an unvisited city, but we can see it from a distance.
- The audience can be chosen.
- Don’t play games you can’t win.
- Projects can be managed.
- We make decisions.
- A difference can be made.
- Assets can be built.
- Networks can be created.
- Traction is the way forward.
- Sunk costs can be ignored.
- Organizations change.
- You’re not sitting in traffic. You are traffic."
I loved this list because it feels like a distilled set of principles to guide not just strategy, but how we think about progress and decisions. The line "You’re not sitting in traffic. You are traffic" especially stuck with me because it reframes how we view the systems we’re a part of and the role we play within them.
"A series of 17 questions shines a light on the work to be done. It brings tomorrow forward to today, right here and right now, allowing us to articulate a strategy. Here they are:
- Who are we here to serve?
- What is the change we seek to make?
- What are our resources?
- What is the genre we’re working on?
- Who has done something like this before me?
- What systems are in play?
- Am I changing someone’s status?
- Why would anyone voluntarily choose to be part of this work?
- What will they tell their colleagues?
- Who gains in status, affiliation, and power by supporting this work?
- Will early support translate into more support later?
- Where is the network effect?
- What do I need to learn to make this work?
- Who do I need to work with?
- Where is the dip, and when should I quit?
- What will I do if it doesn’t work out?
- How much is enough?"
I love the practicality of these questions. They force you to clarify your purpose and approach, especially the one about who gains status by supporting your work.
In your corner,
Misbah Haque
P.S. If you enjoy this episode, a quick review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify would mean a lot!