Dec 31, 2025
Erik’s Newsletter: Shorten the Loop
Issue #86
Theme: Stop relying on motivation. Shorten the loop.
The companies moving fastest aren’t “working harder.” They’re making the default path the right path:
Automate the repeatable work.
Shrink the unit of shipping.
Keep decisions visible.
Treat friction like a bug.
When life gets noisy, mechanisms beat willpower. They turn “I should…” into “this just happens.”
🗓 Today at a Glance
Quote: “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee
Podcast: PM Career Framework (Part 2)
Tactics: Gmail Storage Clean Sweep
Try: The Automation Sweep (15 minutes/day)
Tweet: Good products are opinionated
💬 Quote I’m Pondering
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” — Bruce Lee
Thinking is cheap. Drafts are cheap. Options are cheap. Plans are cheap.
So the scarce thing isn’t ideas. It’s commitment to motion.
The new failure mode is getting trapped in infinite possibility. The fix is boring: shorten loops, ship something, let reality edit your theory.
🧠 What I’m Thinking About
Frameworks are just pre-made tradeoffs
Most overwhelm is unmade decisions.
People talk about productivity like it’s a personal trait. It’s not. It’s a system that decides for you when you’re tired.
If your system doesn’t decide, your inbox does.
“Automate everything” is a culture decision
Jensen Huang pushing “automate every task possible” is less about tools and more about permission.
A lot of companies secretly punish automation:
you automate → you look less busy
you ship faster → you create more change management
you remove meetings → you threaten someone’s control surface
If leadership wants speed, they have to reward the behaviors that create it.
A simple rule that works: anything done twice gets a template; anything done three times gets automated.
The best productivity app in the AI world might be one text file
The “one long text file” productivity system works because it’s durable.
Essay: https://jeffhuang.com/productivity_text_file/
Plain text has three superpowers:
it doesn’t break
it’s searchable
it’s AI-ready
Once your work is in a single file, you can ask:
“Summarize the last 7 days into a weekly update.”
“Find recurring themes.”
“What do I keep avoiding?”
“What should be removed, delegated, or automated?”
The UI doesn’t matter. The data does.
Regulation is the invisible product spec
Two stories that made the same point:
• iRobot / Roomba: blocked from being acquired by Amazon over privacy concerns… then ends up being bought out of bankruptcy by a Chinese firm. Same underlying risk (data/privacy), totally different regulatory posture.
• Boom Supersonic: flirting with a pivot to data centers (turbines → power/infra). Smart narrative shift: fewer aviation constraints, more “AI infrastructure” tailwinds.
High output requires emotional bandwidth
One non-work idea I keep coming back to: output isn’t only time management — it’s emotional management.
This Joe Hudson piece frames emotions like a child: ignore them and they escalate; welcome them and they pass.
Two practical reminders I liked:
• don’t believe your emotions
• welcome the resistance
If you’ve ever optimized your life into numbness, this is worth reading.
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🎧 Podcasts Worth Your Time
PM Career Framework (Part 2)
Full-stack builder program at LinkedIn
Trading stocks based off of information asymmetry
🧰 Tactics & Tools
Gmail Storage Clean Sweep
Thread:
Search, bulk delete, repeat:
older_than:1y has:attachmentlarger:10mbfilename:pdf/filename:mp4/filename:zip
Then empty Trash and check Google Photos.
One-File Productivity (calendar + log)
Essay: https://jeffhuang.com/productivity_text_file/
My favorite lightweight version:
One .txt file
Daily header:
Top 3 outcomes
Meetings
Tasks
Notes
End-of-day line:
- What shipped?
Weekly, ask AI to summarize and spot repeats.
Stolen iPhone shortcut
Even if you never run it, it’s a good exercise: decide what you want your phone to do the moment it’s gone.
A sales narrative worth stealing
Problem → Pain → Current Solutions → Why They Fail → What Changed → New Solution → Proof
This works for internal roadmaps too. If you can’t articulate “what changed,” you’re proposing preference, not strategy.
🧪 Things to Try
The Automation Sweep (15 minutes/day)
For one week:
Each day, write down one task you did that could be automated or templated.
At the end of the week, pick one and actually do it.
Standardize one tiny thing
One sock. One lunch. One meeting template.
The point isn’t minimalism. It’s reducing “micro-decisions” that steal attention from the things that matter.
Ask the simplest question in the room
Try this in your next meeting:
“What are the next steps?”
“Who owns it?”
“What would make this a no?”
Simple questions surface missing mechanisms.
🐦 Tweets & Links That Made Me Stop and Think
AI + work
How ChatGPT memory works: https://manthanguptaa.in/posts/chatgpt_memory/
ChatGPT can now make presentations:
“AI changes everything” (small + big):
Product + shipping
Ramp ships major releases daily:
Ship daily / no sprints:
“Do things quickly”:
Change management is the hard part:
Good products are opinionated:
Career
Venn diagram resume:
How to get engineers to trust you as a PM:
Negotiation advice:
Stop making things about you:
PM in the AI era:
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Behind the Craft
So What's Going to Happen to Product Management Anyway?
Dear subscribers…
Read more
5 months ago · 173 likes · 20 comments · Peter Yang
Life
Gmail cleanup:
How to wrap a gift (Japan style):
26 parenting tips:
Zero-drop kids shoes / wide toe box:
Health + wellness system (expensive but interesting):
Thanks for reading — see you next month.