Tiny Increments
2025 Recap
Imagination is what set Homo sapiens apart from other Homo species and eventually made it thrive.
Tens of thousands of years ago we made structures that required a lot of energy and sacrifice, yet we couldn’t eat those structures, use them as shelter or a weapon.
But we had an idea, believed in something we haven’t seen yet and that’s how we eventually ended up collaborating in larger and larger groups and dominated other Homo species.
The same imagination that kept us alive is also our biggest limiting factor.
Take New Year for example.
It’s a date on a calendar.
Nothing biologically prevents you from finding a new job, learning a new skill or starting to work out at any given time. Yet we rely on this construct of a New Year. You fill your calendar with promises you might keep.
I think approaches like this are destined to fail.
Once I posted this idea of how cool it would be to have a mobile app of some sort, with nothing else but like really solid, short and actionable life advice.
Then a really smart guy replied to me:
most of that life advice would fit on a pamphlet
Here’s my pamphlet for 2026:
Tiny Increments
I’ve been working out for over a decade now.
Muscle building is an incredibly slow and painful process. You tear down the muscle fiber with resistance. You eat, sleep, and if other factors such as your testosterone, nutrients and basic biology works out all right you gain somewhere between 0.2 to 1 kg (0.5 - 2 lbs) muscle in a month.
Not much of a payoff, right?
Wait, it gets worse the longer you train.
Why on earth would you do something that gives you less and less progress and becomes harder and harder over time.
Goals.
Take pull-ups for example, a super demanding exercise. It recruits most of your back musculature. It requires technique and bunch of muscles to work in sync.
A decade ago I couldn’t pull myself up to the bar.
Today I can do them for reps.
My goal wasn’t to do pull-ups. It was to get stronger.
But if I were focusing solely on the number of pull-ups, I might have given up since progression in strength is not linear.
That’s why I don’t focus on the day-to-day happening anymore.
Instead I reflect, realign (if needed), and proceed in tiny increments.
80/20
There’s a Japanese saying:
If you get on the wrong train, get off at the nearest station. The longer it takes you to get off, the more expensive the trip will be.
Earlier this year I quit a job I was fantasising about getting for two years.
Then in October I handed in my resignation and joined a Swiss-based startup that works on an idea that I didn’t believe was possible. Until I tried their product and saw it for myself.
This is one of the most disruptive things in customer intelligence and market research I’ve seen in years and I’m working on it. 😱
This is incredible, but it happened late this year—in the last 20%.
I had many reasons not to quit my past job: I worked myself to a principal role, I felt I could retire from this company, I really understood what we were trying to do, and it was close to the holiday season anyway.
But I felt I was on the wrong train.
And I didn’t wait until New Year, to get financially stable “enough” (is there such a thing?), or to get the stars perfectly aligned.
I just got off at the nearest station.
This is all I want you to take into this year.
I appreciate your support and being such a kind reader.
Happy 2026!
ps.: Where’s your train headed in 2026?
Good luck with the journey on your current train, Akos.
Great pamphlet! :)