The Average Line

Life gets complicated—fast.
We live in a complex world. We are complex beings. And when complex meets complex, things get complicated. As a system designer, I’ve always found joy in that mess. That glorious, tangled web where nothing is linear and everything is connected.

But rabbit-holing into complexity—every day, in every domain—has a cost. It’s exhilarating, yes. But it also spikes your cortisol. It drains your system. Constantly problem-solving becomes a default state, and over time, it becomes a chronic burden.

That’s when I reached for Occam’s Razor—the idea that the simplest solution is often the best—and applied it to both my work and my life. I reduced everything down to just one metric:

👉 The Average Line.

Whether it’s your career, your relationships, your health, your finances—or life itself—you know where your average line is. Maybe you can’t plot it with numbers, but you know the sense of it: is it low, medium, or high?

Once I became aware of this baseline, my goal became simple:
Move the average line up.

That’s it.

Not every day will be great. Some decisions may even dip the line in the short term—but if they have long-term payoff, they’re worth it. Over time, if the trend is up, you’re growing.

If the line is flat, you’re stagnating.
If it’s dipping, you’re likely ignoring something important.
If it’s rising, you’re doing something right.

This mental model became my compass.

Every decision—big or small—is now filtered through a single question:
“Will this move my average line up over time?”

It brought clarity.
It brought peace.
It simplified complexity.

Because while I enjoy the mess of systems, I live better in simplicity.

So yes—shit happens.
But zoom out. Track the trend.
The average line tells you where you’re headed, not just where you are.

It’s not perfection. It’s progression.
A gentle, consistent north star for a complex life.