The Base Case Mindset

Big problems. Big solutions. The instinct is wrong.

Complexity is a drug. We reach for it because simple feels too easy to be right.

But the masters know better.

When programming legend Donald Knuth taught students to solve mazes, he didn't start with the labyrinth. He started with two connected points.

Every complex problem contains a simpler version of itself.

That impossible project? It's built from small, solvable pieces. That team conflict? It started with a single misalignment. That struggling campaign? It's not one big problem. It's many tiny ones stacked together.

We resist this approach because it feels too simple. Like we're avoiding the real challenge.

But complex systems don't yield to brute force. They yield to decomposition.

This is The Assembly Line Lesson - Ford didn't hire faster workers. He changed the system.

Find the base case. Solve that first. The Momentum Engine shows how to start simple.