Hi,
I wasn't expecting 34.7K people (still growing) to be interested in my methodology of hacking hardened systems.
It's an ultra-niche topic with zero elements of clickbait in the presentation. The title is factual and direct, if understated. The thumbnail is bare minimum. Clear data.
If anything, the video was meant for a handful of big tech and government-adjacent decision makers who are looking to work with me on technical R&D projects.
But the bigger surprise was the volume of specific audience interest in the biochemical side of productivity. I barely mentioned it in the video, while (I guess) it's strongly implied throughout as a pillar of my system.
Upon reflection, I realized it's not surprising at all.
Here is the big picture.
Level 0: Body > Physiology > Biochemistry > Neurochemistry > …
We go from high level to low level by traversing levels of system organization, away from the final product and towards the foundational building blocks. This level roughly corresponds to hardware and firmware in computer systems.
Level 1: Cognition > Mindset > World-model > Identity > …
In my universe, Identity isn't a shallow self-label on ego but rather a low-level generative blueprint of everything that a person is or does. I wrote about it a bit more in this crazy paper. This level roughly corresponds to the operating system part of the stack.
Note that levels 0 and 1 are not really separate — they go into each other seamlessly. I omitted the linking block.
Level 2: Apps > Devices > Rulesets > Levers > …
This level corresponds to apps.
In proportional relation: level 0 accounts for 79.5% of impact on human function, level 1 is 19.5%, and level 2 — 1%. Rough numbers to illustrate the ratios.
Now consider this: the entire Productivity field is built on optimizing a mere 1% of what makes a difference.
But it's a prominent industry. Surely it works?
The answer to the apparent contradiction is “kind of”. Productivity “apps” marginally work in a subset of the population where “hardware” and “OS” are baseline-optimized by default.
Level 0 baseline correlates with chronological youth. Level 1 baseline correlates with templated social roles.
The moment either correlation breaks, app-grade productivity solutions become useless.
If you're in your 20–30s following a traditional career path, you're good for now.
Both correlations will break eventually for everyone. This is the reason why the margins of productivity field have been sweeping supplementation and individual coaching for a while now.
For some people — like me — they never worked in the first place.
So I've had three decades to run experiments and engineer custom systems before the issue became mainstream.
Which, I guess, solves the prediction error that opened this newsletter.
Back to YouTube — I've opened a base tier of membership, called Privilege Escalation. Another surprise: my community jumped right into it within 24 hours of availability. I didn't announce it anywhere.
Alisa <3
alisa.sh
28 June 2026