I’ve been thinking about friction lately. Not the physics kind, but the resistance that makes progress difficult.

Signull wrote about how friction is a moat - a competitive advantage that keeps noise away.

This concept has been bouncing around my mind, connecting with other thoughts about work, value, and meaning. It’s crystallized into a simple directive that

I keep coming back to:

DO HARD THINGS

Do #

Action first. Not writing about doing things, not pondering or procrastinating. Doing. Acting. IRL.

The world is full of people who talk about what they’ll build, systems they’ll create, changes they’ll make. But talk is cheap - execution is everything.

• Most people never start
• Of those who start, most quit when it gets difficult
• Of those who persist, most settle for “good enough”

Each dropout creates space. Opportunity. A gap where you can push forward if you’re willing to do the work.

The key insight: action creates clarity. You don’t need perfect information to begin. Start with what you have, and the path forward reveals itself through doing.

It’s very easy to be the brooding artist, the philosopher, the armchair quarterback.

Action reveals reality.

Hard #

Our soul demands proof of work.

We’re drawn to difficulty because it’s fundamentally meaningful. Easy wins feel hollow precisely because they’re easy.

Consider:

• Why do we admire marathon runners more than those who walk a mile?
• Why does handcrafted furniture command higher prices than mass-produced?
• Why do we respect someone who built their business from nothing more than someone who inherited wealth?

The difficulty - the friction - becomes the value.

This isn’t just philosophical. It’s practical:

When you persistently do what others avoid, you build capabilities others don’t have.

Things #

Take a project-first approach to life. Everything is a project.

“Things” implies tangibility - concrete outcomes rather than vague aspirations. Projects have defined scope, measurable progress, and a closure criteria.

The most satisfied people I know structure their lives around meaningful projects:

• Building companies
• Raising children
• Creating art
• Developing skills

Projects provide focus. They transform abstract values into specific actions. They create the context for meaningful work.

The composition of these projects - which ones you choose, which you reject - defines your life’s direction. Each project becomes a building block, accumulating into a body of work that represents who you are.

Doing hard things is how you find your edge - the place where your unique capabilities meet meaningful challenges. It’s how you create work that matters, develop rare skills, and build a moat around your contributions.

This isn’t about suffering for its own sake. It’s about embracing the necessary friction that comes with creating value.

The question isn’t whether you should do hard things - you must, if you want your work to matter. The question is: which hard things are worth doing?

The resistance you feel is the whole point - it’s the proof that what you’re doing matters.