A Deep Generalist Manifesto
Frameworks tell you what. Reality requires why.
The Expert Confusion
You hire consultants. They deliver frameworks.
The frameworks are correct. They worked somewhere. For someone. Under specific conditions you don't have.
You implement them anyway. Because everyone agrees this is best practice.
It fails.
Not dramatically. Just... quietly. The numbers don't move. The team stays confused. The problem remains.
So you hire different consultants. They bring different frameworks. Same result.
You're not failing to implement. You learned the wrong thing.
The Pattern
Here's what happened:
The consultant sold you conclusions. "Do this, then this, then this." A prescription without diagnosis. A solution without understanding.
You followed it. Because it made sense. It worked for Google. Or Amazon. Or that startup that raised $50 million.
But you're not them. Your constraints are different. Your context is specific. Your reality has variables their framework never considered.
This is mechanism blindness.
Frameworks describe what to do. They skip why it works. They strip context to scale. They export conclusions, not understanding.
You can't adapt what you don't understand. You can't troubleshoot what you can't see. You can't know when the rules apply if you don't know the rules behind the rules.
The mechanism is the why. The invisible architecture. The physics underneath the prescription.
Without it, you're flying blind. With it, you see patterns everywhere.
Three Patterns You're Missing
Case 1: The Org Design Trap
"To scale output, hire more people."
You do it. You hire three senior engineers. Smart people. Experienced. Expensive.
Output drops.
Not because they're bad. Because you added 21 new communication pathways to a team that had 15. Communication doesn't scale linearly. It scales as n(n-1)/2.
The mechanism you missed: Coordination cost grows faster than output. Adding resources past a threshold decreases velocity.
This is in Momentum Engineering
Case 2: The Attribution Mystery
"Use last-click attribution" or "Use multi-touch."
You pick one. Or both. You run reports. The data says opposite things.
You're crediting touchpoints without understanding journey position. A webinar at awareness stage does different work than a webinar at decision stage. Same touchpoint. Different value.
The mechanism you missed: Touch value varies by buyer journey stage. Generic models average away the signal.
This is in Measurement Traps
Case 3: The AI Implementation Mirage
"Automate repetitive tasks" or "Augment decision-making."
Both sound right. You pilot AI tools. They work in demo. They fail in production.
Because five mechanisms interact at once: workflow patterns, data quality, change management capacity, model limitations, organizational antibodies. Miss one, the whole thing fails.
The mechanism you missed: AI implementation isn't a technology problem. It's a system problem.
This is in Hybrid Intelligence
The Transformation
You can stay where you are. Collect more frameworks. Try more best practices. Hope the next consultant gets it right.
Or you can learn to see patterns.
Not just in one domain. Everywhere. Because mechanisms repeat. The same physics that governs team coordination governs marketing funnels governs technology adoption.
Context changes. Mechanisms don't.
- You stop asking "What should I do?" You start asking "Why does this work?"
- You stop seeking prescriptions. You start seeing patterns.
- You stop depending on frameworks. You start adapting to context.
This is the trade: Give up certainty. Get leverage.
Give up quick answers. Get compound understanding.
Give up framework dependency. Get competitive advantage.
Explore the Territories
Not sure where to start?
Framework dependency is profitable. For them.
Pattern recognition is profitable. For you.
Your move.