Field Notes 003 — Discipline is what’s left when obsession wanes.

At one point I was training Muay Thai two to three hours every day after work, seven days a week. I was obsessed. I wanted to know how good I could get if I gave it that much of my time.

I think that’s the intensity you need to bring to do hard things quickly and well. Get yourself obsessed, put the blinders on and put the hours in. You can brute force your way towards a lot of the outcomes people want, but you have to be willing to let it take up that much of your life.

Others will question your approach. That’s exactly where I like to be. If people aren’t uncomfortable with your level of intensity, I think there’s a good chance you’re just being average.

I’ve had the same obsession with AI since 2023. How businesses, economics and the world will transform, and what I should be doing now to be part of that. I want to understand it properly, and the more I learn, the more I want to get into it.

I think you can trick yourself into obsession. Find something you want badly enough and spend enough time around it that you keep wanting to go further. Use that while you have it, because you only get to feel that way for a finite amount of time. It might last years, but eventually it wanes.

When that obsession wanes, what are you left with?

Rarely does a week go by where I haven’t trained Muay Thai. Sunday mornings are reserved for it. I feel sick if I don’t get that session of padwork in. It’s my version of a temple.

I’m no longer training two to three hours every day, but I’ve given it a permanent place in my week. The obsession got me there. Discipline keeps me coming back.