Doing The Least Possible
Level 4: Serious Player
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M
E
D
Minimum. Effective. Dose.
A phrase so succinct that when you 'get it,' you get it, and before it all clicks, it just sounds like ... well, medical gibberish.
So much packed into 3 words.
Did you read "What is Enough?"1
The simplest answer is,
The minimum effective dose.
That is,
The least amount of effort you can put into something in order to get the outcome you desire.
Doesn't that sound good?
Why wouldn't you be interested?
I'll tell you ...
It's your human mindset, bro. Your monkey mind.
The little chattering voice that always says "it can't be that simple."
Actually Steeve. ITS SIMPLER THAN THAT.
We just can't comprehend the power inherent in the simplicity because we're hardwired to think "more = better."
So strap yourself in for a wild ride of doing the least amount of effort possible.
Let me tell you a quick story.
And I'm sorry if this sounds like bragging. It's really not. (also I'm not sorry, and maybe I am bragging)
I'm actually losing too much weight, too fast, as I write this.
And I haven't even gone on a diet, nor have I tried really hard to work out.
HEY
Before you slam the door in my face,
Let me explain.
I've done the whole weight loss rollercoaster. Did the weight watchers, the paleo, the keto, the whole 30, the slow carb, the ... whatever the hell I could think of and could be convinced to do.
I did "the gym 3-4 times per week," road my bike, lifted weights, played squash, walked a lot, got my zone minutes, blah blah blah.
My favorite perspective on all this now is from Dan John.2 For all that sh*t, the truth is "everything works" .... and "everything works for about 6 weeks."
More on that another time.
For me now, I'm back close to where I started before my last great weight loss and fitness journey.
The one where I got the strongest and leanest I'd ever been in my adult life.
I thought I had 'cracked the puzzle.'
Only, I'd made a situation that worked because of specific limitations on my life that no longer exist.
Fast forward to now, I've taken a much different view on weight loss. Before I was dropping 10-20 pounds a month to start and then putting on a ton of muscle.
Now, I really don't want to lose more than 1 pound a week.
I would be pleased with half a pound.
The reasons for this are better explained by someone with more knowledge, but effectively if I restrict my weight loss to this amount, my body won't notice and my metabolism won't get screwed. So long term, I'm more likely to retain whatever level of health and fitness I get to.
So here I am, trying this new thing.
This new thing is "moving more" and "not eating too much."
I know,
Shocking.
Ground breaking even.
I'm not even measuring my food (to be fair, I've measured enough in my life that I really actually know what I need to eat, if I'm just present with myself and pay attention).
I'm taking weight measurements twice a day in order to capture an upper and lower range.
And what I've started to notice, after doing this for awhile, is that I appear to be dropping more than a pound a week on average.
Even as I write this my monkey mind is like SO WHAT! DROP THE WEIGHT! LET IT GO! FASTER MORE!
But nope.
I don't need to lose more than a pound a week. Like seriously if that's consistent, in a year I'm 52 pounds lighter and holy crap that's like what my daughter weighs.
An entire person.
And this is the important part of MED.
It has a the other side of the barbell with it - MRV - maximum recoverable volume. In this parlance, the most amount of weight I could lose the fastest possible without killing myself.
For a quick aside, MED-MRV comes from the medical field. Minimum Effective Dose is, as the name implies, the minimum amount of medicine you need to get the result. MRV, Maximum Recoverable Volume, is basically the most of a particular medicine you can take without dying.
You go MRV if you're gonna die anyway, so you might as well take the most amount of medicine your body can handle and maybe kill whatever is killing you - basically no increased risk (since death is already on the table).
Anything in between is just wasting resources and risking the system for no discernable benefit.
In life, there's rarely a situation where you're hitting the medical technical MRV where you do as much as possible because otherwise death is inevitable. In life we play the infinite game, so our goal is to not lose, which means focusing on mitigating risk.
Which is why we focus on MED - but there are situations where the MRV perspective can help us make decisions (and where we'll bring in other similar frameworks).
For my own MED this is the key:
I'm trying to lose weight in a way that won't tip off my metabolism, cause me to downregulate and then screw things up int he long run. I want a nice slow glide down to my ideal weight level where I can easily maintain that, within the life I have, without regaining it eventually.
If I aim for MED, which for me is .5-1 pound per week, I do that.
My MRV, based on historical data, is like 5 pounds a week. Maybe I could do more if necessary. So let's say for the sake of argument, I was gonna die in a year if I didn't lose 100 pounds in 6 months, I'd throw caution to the wind, hit MRV, and drop 100 damn pounds in 6 months.
But I don't need to do that.
And in fact, if I lose anything OVER 1 pound, it risks ruining my main goal.
That's the nature of MED - MRV
You only go to MRV if you absolutely need to.
And anything between MED and MRV is a waste of energy (and in my case, hurts me).
BUUUT
BUUUUUUUUUT
NO
Shuttup
I get it.
I really do.
I'm talking to my own voice in my head because none of us ever get rid of our Human Mindset - but The Champions Mind3 is about responding appropriately and adjusting our understanding and perspective as we go.
I could lose weight faster. I know exactly how to do it.
I could even keep doing what I'm doing and lose weight a *little bit faster* but not quite as fast as I have in the past.
But I'm actually going to start eating just a little bit more. I can tell over the past little bit of doing this that I have been hungrier than usual. I let it ride, and tracked the data. Now I can tell I have a little bit of room to slow this train down.
Because I'm going to respect the MED. Because my goal, my long term health, is FAR more important than a few extra numbers in the short term.
It might feel good for me to drop another 10-20 pounds in the next month or two --- but that's just dopamine seeking. I know it won't serve me well in the long run. And I actually really know this because I've done it that way before.
Learned the hard way.
Went from 260 down to 195 and then all the way back up again.
Now I'm more interested in following Dan John's 10 commandments.4 The most relevant one for this example is "The longer you take to get in shape, the longer you keep that shape."
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Do just enough.
Or, in this technical parlance, just find The Minimum Effective Dose to get the result.
If you're still reading this and thinking "that guy is a fool, he's never gonna get there, he should lose as much weight as he can now and then work to keep it off"
Fine.
Think that.
And then just watch.
I'll be back here in 2 years with an article titled "How I Lost 76 Pounds by Breathing."
You'll be like "HOLY SH$% HOW DO I DO THAT GIVE ME THE SECRET!"
And I'll charge you $5000 for a coaching session where I read this article to you verbatim.
Enough about me.
Let's get into
THE SEXY WORLD OF “BIMODAL” FRAMEWORKS
Cue Seneca,
aaaand roll the toga party
MED v MRV is bimodal framework - typically presented as a barbell.5
We use multiple similar barbells to assist in our thinking.
You've seen MED v MRV
Another is Explore v Exploit
Another is The efforts needed to maintain V the efforts needed to change.
They are all very similar, sometimes interchangeable.
And they all have one thing in common:
Figure out how to use your resources as best as possible in order to make CERTAIN you achieve the outcome you desire.
Because one of the worst things that can happen is getting yourself on a track to get what you want, and then burning out all your resources.
Hang on,
I need a more useful frame to discuss this ...
BRING IN THE TIME LORDS!!!!!!
Ok great.
Quick question:
How much time you got?
How many times have you deeply considered the time you NEED in order to achieve an outcome?
How many times have you told yourself I NEED MONEY NOWWWWWWWW and that's be a completely bald faced lie?
As in, you'd like money now, but
If you're honest with yourself,
You'd be pretty fine with a lot less than you say you need.
Or rather, you'd be fine if you got the money you want in a much greater time frame than you say you need.
Back in our crypto origins we used to have this discussion, because so many people were dead focused on getting their millions NOW - like, I need my 10 million tomorrow. So they'd basically gamble away their opportunities because the only way you're gonna get 10 million tomorrow from next to nothing is by winning the lottery.
Whereas, if you accept a longer time frame, you can grow to that point with certainty.
So I ask you again ...
HOW MUCH TIME YOU GOT BUDDY?
That's the most important question you need to answer. If you can't answer it, go figure out how you can answer it before continuing.
Time alone determines where you must land on the barbell.
Consider this fictitious scenario (we like to use this one in our examples of explore/exploit).
You've just walked into a Casino.
You sat down at a slot machine, and you're actually winning a little bit. Not huge jackpots or anything, but you're actually winning a little.
What do you do?
Do you
A) keep using that slot machine
or
B) try as many of the other slot machines and see if you can get a better result
I mean, you're winning... but not that much.
What if you could win a whole lot more?
What if that slot machine right next to you is just a few pulls away from a jackpot?
What do you do?
The answer is IT DEPENDS.
(Hah gotcha)
More completely, it depends on how much time you have left.
Explore vs Exploit comes from computer science. You don't need to know the details, just understand that "exploit" means to focus all your resources on one thing over a short period of time, "explore" means to spread out your resources and take advantage of a longer time frame.
If you find yourself in that Casino situation, and you have 20 minutes before you need to go, just exploit the hell out of that slot machine that's working. Yea there might be better ones around, but you don't know, and you sure as heck aren't gonna figure it out in 20 minutes. You are minimizing your risk and capturing results in the short term, but giving up the potential long term upside.
However,
If you have many hours ahead of you and nowhere else to go, you might want to explore and try many of the other machines and see if you can get a better result. You're accepting a little more risk and giving up short term gain, for much more potential upside.
That is a useful frame for considering your situation with respect to time. How much time can you spend. Not how much time do you WANT to spend. Because if we COULD have 10 million dollars in 30 minutes by pushing a button we'd all do that, and then forget about money and do the thing we love doing anyway.
But,
That's not how it works.
To put time and randomness on your side, you've got to respect REALITY. And that means, for super reals, how much time CAN you spend to figure this thing out.
For my weight loss? I could spend years getting down to my goal weight. I don't have anything forcing a time bound requirement on that process. Do I WANT it to go faster? Well yes, I would be pleased If I was already there. And my human mindset certainly is yelling at me to go faster.
But if I respect reality - the lack of time bound necessity says "explore" and "MED." It says "find all the ways to put time on my side AND get what I want."
So, Explore / Exploit.
Explore is to take advantage of having a lot of time on your hands. Exploit is to take advantage of a thing you know works NOW to get a result quickly.
It's all Infinite and Finite Games.6
A finite game. It ends. So, do you have a defined end point? You may need to exploit. Do you need money now? You may need to exploit. Do you need to lose 10 pounds this month? You may need to exploit.
Exploit usually comes with longer term tradeoffs that you have to reconcile with, so make dam sure it’s worth it.
Infinite games - they don't end. Your goal is to stay in the game. To not lose. So if you don't have an endpoint / time restriction ... play the infinite game. Explore. Don't need money *now* but *want* to achieve more in the future? Explore using MED to find the path of certainty.
"YES YES OK ... if I have time, take time, if I don't have time, do everything I can with the time I have, got it."
Sure but,
Let's not simplify this idea too much. It is simple, and elegant ...
But it's also, possibly, the most important technical component of getting what you want in life.
It's "What is Enough?" the technical version.
One more frame that is useful.
"The effort it takes to maintain" vs "The effort it takes to make a change."
This frame is useful for highlighting *wasted effort.*
I'll take my weight loss journey as an example.
If going to the gym 2-3 times a week for 20 minutes is all I need to hit my goal of 0.5-1 pound loss per week ... that's my MED. That's the effort it takes for me to sustain my current goal.
If I want to build muscle and get as strong as I used to be, then history says I need to go to the gym 3 times a week for 90 minutes each time.
(Forget whether that second statement can be disproven for the moment, and accept that as true for the point)
In order to make change - to not just "lose weight" but also "build strength like I used to have" - I've got to go to the gym for 270 minutes a week instead of 60 minutes a week.
That means,
Anything over 60 minutes and under 270 minutes is not doing anything for me other than wasting my time and energy (two important resources for me).
It's putting more time and energy into things than it takes to maintain the goal in the first example, and not enough to attain the goal in the second.
The effort it takes to maintain vs The effort it takes to make a change.
So this brings us to the surprising conclusion of all of this
It's always MED
Did you notice the theme throughout all that?
The MOST important thing is that you have a deep understanding of what it is you are trying to accomplish.
Because for everything you want to accomplish there is a minimum amount of effort to achieve that result.
And no matter what,
There is NO point in doing more than the minimum amount of effort necessary to achieve the result.
(Unless you’re literally going to die, and have nothing to lose by doing the maximum possible)
It's just wasted resources, which reduces the likelihood of getting what you want.
"BUT JOSEPH YOU JUST SAID IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A CHANGE YOU'VE GOT TO PUT IN MORE EFFORT"
Yes,
Great.
Now, bring it back to this point:
The most important thing is that you have a deep understanding of what it is you are trying to accomplish.
If I am trying to accomplish significant strength building and body recomposition ....
MY MED CHANGES
Don't look so shocked.
The dirty secret of MED, is that there's always an MED - even when you are putting everything you've got into it, pedal to the metal, maximum recoverable volume, you're lifting weights and dieting like you're gonna be dead in a few months if you don't do it, etc ...
There's still a MED.
Because MED is "the minimum effective effort for the result you need."
If I need to lose 100 pounds in 6 months, the minimum effective effort for that is whatever it takes to lose 17 pounds a month.
That's why it's abundantly important that you be super duper ultra crystal clear on exactly what you want and why.
I personally don't *need* to lose 100 pounds in 6 months. I'm not in a situation where I die if I don't. In fact I don't have a time bound reason to lose a set amount. I just want to live healthier and be lighter because I believe I'll have a longer happier healthy life if I do.
See how that clarity tells me where my MED lies?
It lies at .5-1 pounds per week.
Because in that range my body won't notice the change, so I won't experience metabolism down regulation. I'll also take enough time to get into shape that I'll likely keep that shape for a long time.
Right now, ANY MORE EFFORT, is wasted resources. And that means I reduce the likelihood of getting what I want.7
See how the clarity of the goal makes it all come together?
I struggle to find a reason to shoot for anything other than the MED - even when you're in MRV range, it's got to be the MED for a specific situation.
Do you feel different?
Go ahead, argue with me. Tell me in the comments.
I've experienced so much the benefit of living at MED that I might just be blind to other perspectives - but it just makes too much damn sense.
Also it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable to live this way.
I don't need to go keto. I don't need to whole 30. I don't need to spend 6 hours a week in the gym.
I can just be present and find the path where I fully enjoy every bit of what I'm doing and who I am.
And in my business?
I just need to do the one or two things which puts me on the path of inevitability.
If I find myself with a Time Bound Constraint - like, as an obvious example, say I need to make $5k more next month. Well, I'm gonna look to the MED of making that change within the time requirement (which may very well sit at my MRV).
Otherwise …
I’m going to do the least possible while still attaining the outcome I desire.
Live to learn. Give to Earn.
Guardian Academy
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