Let me set a scene:
For thousands of hours during childhood, you find yourself within the confines of a school. You learn to sit quietly at your desk, to follow instructions, and to absorb information for later regurgitation in a test or exam. Day after day, ideological walls are constructed around your mind; soon, it’s easier to be a victim of life than to play an active role in it.
I’m not so arrogant as to deny that education is a miraculous concept, or to claim that everyone has had the same access to schooling that I have. Largely, however, I believe there are several crucial ways in which schools are underpreparing future generations for the real world, and one of them is negatively impacting your life today…
Raise Your Hand
In a conventional school environment, almost everything (aside from the assigned work) requires explicit permission. Whether you need to leave early, or fill up your water bottle, or go to the bathroom, you must first seek external approval. This makes sense when you’re managing a classroom of hyperactive eight-year-olds, but is entirely counterproductive in everyday life.
If you seek permission for everything you do, then your future prospects are limited by the judgement of others. If you act only according to others’ judgement, then you waste the thoughts and ideas that make you an individual. Act without any external feedback, however, and there’s no telling how stupid you could become. Therefore, we must first establish the necessary conditions under which permissionless action thrives.
Sink or Swim
When Phil Knight, the creator of Nike, tried to borrow money to scale his new company, banks weren’t sure that they’d ever see their money again. In Knight’s memoir, Shoe Dog, we learn that one banker went as far as phoning Phil’s father: “if the kid’s company goes under—you’ll still back him, right?”.
“Hell no,” came the response.
If it had been up to the judgement of this banker, Nike would never exist. In pursuing his business, not only was Phil acting without anyone’s permission, but—as indicated by his father’s lack of financial support—he had assumed responsibility for this decision.
This is a critical component of permissionless action; if anyone could do whatever they wanted without any consequences, then society would collapse. Therefore, we must not only learn to act without permission, but to be responsible for the consequences of these decisions.
Knight’s memoir provides timeless insight into the world of business. Modern entrepreneurs, however, can teach us how to take the enhance Knight’s knowledge through use of technology. Grab a laptop and launch your favourite IDE: things are about to get efficient.
Multimillionaire Meditations
Naval Ravikant is one of my favourite modern-day thinkers. Born into poverty in India, he built himself a prosperous career in Silicon Valley and is now an angel investor. What really differentiates him from other entrepreneurs, however, is that he is evidently happy.
“I was born poor and miserable. I'm now pretty well-off, and I'm very happy. I worked at those.”
If you listen to Naval speak (such as on his podcast), you’ll soon learn of his fondness of leverage in the context of business. Of all forms of leverage, his favourite seems to be “products with no marginal cost of replication”. By using these products—such as podcasts, code, video, or even low-quality Substack articles—you give yourself access to near-infinite leverage.
For instance, imagine if this article costed $1 to read.
At no cost to me, I could publish this piece, and it could be read by nobody, or one person, or a million people. My job is done once the article is published; the workload is fixed, but the payout is virtually unlimited. Such is the nature of leverage, both in business and in physics.
Okay, but why is this form of leverage Naval’s favourite? Why isn’t it money, labour, or some other form?
Because it’s permissionless.
I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to write this article. All I need is a computer and internet access, and I have all the necessary tools at my disposal. Whilst employees need to agree to work for you, and investors need to agree to provide you with capital, nobody needs to agree to anything for you to film a YouTube video, or write a tweet, or record a podcast. Moreover, these products can be delivered to thousands, millions, or even billions of people with no additional cost.
Skin in the Game
Ravikant has another interesting point that rounds out this discussion nicely:
“Clear accountability is important. Without accountability, you don’t have incentives. Without accountability, you can’t build credibility.”
In my mind, this is the final pillar of permissionless action. Not only should you bear the responsibility of your decisions, but your reputation should also be at stake.
If you consistently act with integrity and competence in the public eye, you will gain credibility. Likewise, if you prove to be untrustworthy, the opposite will occur. When amplified by internet connectivity, this provides ample opportunity to make a great name for yourself.
Don’t put any effort into pleasing the homogeneous sludge of social media, but instead build relationships of mutual respect with people that you genuinely admire. When the time comes for you to capitalise on the latent leverage you’ve accumulated, you’ll reap exactly what you’ve sown.
A Leap of Faith
From now on, pay attention to instances where you find yourself seeking permission before acting. I urge you to finally leave the classroom and face the real world, in all its boundless danger and beauty. Perhaps life would be more fulfilling for us all if we followed Knight’s advice more often: “Just Do It”.
Never stop thinking.
- Will