Ownership

2026-08-12

Jocko has this saying about extreme ownership: take control of everything in your life. There is no one else to blame. I applied this in the past. It works. It also overshoots.

So I wrote down four checks [1] for myself:

  1. "Could I do this better?" is not "Should I do this?"
  2. Seeing a problem is not owning it.
  3. The required quality is not the maximum achievable quality.
  4. Being right doesn't give you ownership.

The hard part is following them.

Notes

[1] Claude suggested these exact words after a long discussion. I find them helpful nonetheless.