Everyone’s Doing It” Is a Terrible Strategy

“If you do the same thing everybody else around you is doing, you don’t have any competitive advantage — and you don’t get to become outstanding at some point in your life.”


Saturday mornings are my quiet time to get the bulk of my computer work done for the week. Most of the week is spent creating content, recording podcasts, training, and running kids to various sports and practices. While listening to this clip, a few lines caused me to pause and hit rewind. Not because the speaker said something revolutionary, but because he was speaking a truth no one wants to hear.

Especially in a culture that rewards imitation, noise, and staying comfortably within the herd.

We’re trained from an early age to fit in, follow along, and avoid rocking the boat. It starts in school, continues in college, and metastasizes in corporate culture. Show up, do what everyone else is doing, and clock out. Rinse, repeat. Blend in, be agreeable, and maybe, just maybe, get rewarded for it someday.

But here’s the reality: no one who blends in ever stands out.

Competitive Advantage Comes From Contrast

If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, same schedule, same habits, same distractions, same mental diet, then you’ve effectively eliminated any edge you could’ve had. You’ve opted into a game where mediocrity is the default outcome.

Let’s be real: following the crowd might feel safer, but it’s the fastest path to average. And average is nowhere near where excellence lives.

If you want to build something different, become someone exceptional, or lead in any capacity, then you need to opt out of the mass behavior loop. Full stop.

Your Attention Is Being Farmed

A big part of why people end up walking the same path is because they’re being herded there by machines.

“The majority of the population becomes slaves to AI-driven recommendation systems. And so the content everybody’s fed is the same thing, and we all become the same.”

It’s not a conspiracy. It’s just business. The algorithm’s job is to feed you what keeps you scrolling, not what makes you brighter, sharper, or stronger. And the more time you spend in that loop, the more your thoughts and priorities mirror the crowd.

When your inputs are identical to everyone else’s, so are your outputs.

Different By Design, Not Accident

Being different doesn’t mean wearing a black turtleneck, carrying a leather satchel, and quoting Nietzsche. (This is an actual reference to my time at Berkeley as a Rhetoric major, where the standard outfit of my professors was a black turtleneck, an old, worn satchel, like something Dean Moriarty carried with an existentialist quote on their lips.)

It means designing your life to prioritize depth over dopamine, and progress over popularity.

That means:

  • Saying no to alcohol if it dulls your edge.
  • Avoiding phones and algorithm-driven distraction machines in the morning so your brain can breathe.
  • Carving out quiet, uninterrupted time to think, reflect, and create.
  • Practicing social courage — approaching people, speaking plainly, holding your ground — without needing a chemical crutch to do it.

None of that is easy. That’s the point.

Mastery is built in Isolation, then Proven in Public

We love the idea of mastery. But most people want the results without the cost. Mastery is expensive — in time, in attention, in discomfort. You don’t get there by echoing the crowd or playing it safe. You get there by choosing a lane no one’s driving in, and grinding until you’re the best in it.

If you want to be outstanding, stop consuming what everyone else is consuming. Stop thinking like the herd. Stop giving your mornings, your energy, and your focus to a phone or a trend.

Pick a niche. Own it. Make it your mission to do what others won’t, and keep doing it long after they’ve quit.

Final Shot

Outsiders win because they’re willing to make decisions the insiders won’t. They don’t chase validation. They chase results. They say ‘no’ more often than ‘yes’. They ignore the drama. They stay focused when everyone else is distracted.

If you want a competitive advantage, stop running the same play as everyone else. Build your own. Execute it ruthlessly. And be ready for the long haul — because mastery isn’t microwaved, it’s forged.

~Johnnie