Intensity > Consistency

break orbit

From childhood, we are taught that “slow and steady wins the race”. That habits, compounded over time, are the keys to success. Yet consistency has a dark side: inertia. The flaw in the "slow and steady" proverb is that it assumes you are on a known path. Examples: going to the gym, learning a language. In these domains, consistency wins because you are simply travelling down a paved road. Yet life is rarely predictable; many get crushed by the volatile nature of reality. To change the trajectory of your life, you need intensity. To pivot is a violent act against your own momentum.

In reinvention, there is no map. You cannot consistently execute steps because the steps do not exist yet. If you walk slowly and steadily through a jungle, you will die there. Most people get stuck in a local optimum; a peak that feels high only because you haven't seen the mountain next to it. Consistency keeps you stuck there, polishing the same skills, clocking the same hours, optimising a life you may have outgrown. It keeps you climbing the wrong mountain efficiently. Intensity is required to climb down, cross the valley of uncertainty, and start climbing again.

Intensity without self-awareness is just thrashing. Self-awareness without intensity is paralysis. I spent so much time figuring out who I am (and still do) to inform which games I should play. I spent years as a party promoter. I could fill a room, close deals, play the game. Eventually, the game stopped serving me. I thought I preferred working as independently as possible, so I walked away. I chose to play the crypto game, the most independent game one can play. I gave it my all. Money as the mission. With time, I lived a frivolous lifestyle. Yet behind the glitz and the glamour, all I could feel was pain. A life of mediocrity. I hadn’t accomplished anything that mattered. I was wrong. What I actually needed was sovereignty. The ability to engage consummate professionals when the vision demanded it, and retreat into solitude when it didn’t. Orchestration, not compromise. Autonomy with purpose, not just autonomy for its own sake. Consistency would have locked me into promoting parties forever or chasing pumps, getting better at things I had outgrown. Intensity let me try, fail, feel the wrongness, and rebuild. You can’t strategise your way out of uncertainty. The best strategy is action.

Reinvention is not a renovation; it is a demolition. Daron Acemoglu, economist and Nobel laureate, argues that the major reason countries stagnate and go into decline is the lack of creative destruction, a process that promotes innovation. The same applies to people. Every time I level up, I am not just adding to my character; I am actively killing my former self. This process is not peaceful. It is a shock to the system. Intensity creates momentum in ways a gentle, consistent pace cannot.

Think of gravity. You cannot launch a rocket by consistently rising. To lift off, you need enough force to break escape velocity. Once you reach orbit, the rules change. If you continue running your engine at max intensity, you will explode or run out of fuel. This leads to a common failure: burnout. Burnout is not caused by intensity itself; it is an error of timing.

Real change happens through concentrated phases of motion, followed by consolidation. Sprint. Recover. Sprint again. The trap is believing that consistency alone will generate a breakthrough. It won't. You can be consistent for ten years by showing up every day and never break through. Most people choose consistency over intensity because it feels safer. Yet there’s a risk they don’t see till it’s too late: they’ll climb efficiently towards a peak they never wanted to reach in the first place.

If you are trying to change your life, build a company, create art: choose intensity first. I know because I have changed my life time and time again. Your energy will warp your reality.