narratives

how the story you tell yourself about your work determines how you feel about your work.

the core observation

"narratives very clearly impact how i feel about work — with a more excited narrative i could have been more interested."

this is one of the most practical insights i've had. the same work, the same project, the same timeline — but framed differently, it becomes either exciting or draining. the narrative isn't just how you describe your work to others; it's how you describe it to yourself, moment to moment.

language shapes behavior

"if something is articulated better, i remember it and its importance more." the way you name things changes how you relate to them. a well-articulated goal sticks. a vague one drifts.

this is why the startup-workflow rituals work — re-entry slides, growth numbers, weekly reflections. they force you to articulate what you're doing and why. the articulation itself creates motivation.

the hype trap

"it is so easy to get fooled by hype." a collaborator was "very much a hype machine." exciting narratives can be false narratives. the fix isn't to distrust excitement — it's to check: does this narrative match reality? is the excitement based on substance or hype?

connect this to modeling — a narrative is a model of your story. "all models are wrong but some are useful." choose a narrative that's useful (motivating, clarifying) without being so wrong that it leads you astray.

startups hard

"startups hard — growth as exceptional work framing is so strong." reframing startup struggle as "exceptional work" and personal growth changes the experience of difficulty. this is narrative engineering.

the danger of approval narratives

"working on referral.bike was pretty short sighted and approval seeking; took the easiest thing on the list." when your narrative is about getting approval from others, you optimize for easy wins, not important work. see critical-path.

narrative and confidence

narrative and confidence are deeply linked. an impostor narrative ("i'm behind, everyone is better") creates a specific emotional reality that feels true but isn't — see impostor-syndrome. switching to an acceleration narrative ("i'm learning fast, position doesn't matter yet") changes everything.

Joe Hudson's work (Art of Accomplishment) explores how the inner critic creates narratives that feel like truth but are actually just one perspective. the practice of noticing narratives — without immediately believing them — is a form of zooming-out applied to your inner experience.