The Iceberg Protocol Revealed

Decoding the Secret of Great Accomplishment Setups

The pyramid.

A captivating shape.

A powerful symbol through cultures & periods.

A concept that intrigues thinkers.

A mother to theory.

A marvel.¹

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I’ve long harbored this burning desire to understand what makes and breaks accomplishment setup. I’m not talking about tool stacks; tools are ephemeral. I’m referring to the thought processes, methods, and principles of accomplished people.

Finding an answer, however, turned out to be rather tricky. As it stands, the advice on personal productivity and accomplishment can be overwhelming and chaotic. A lot of it is individual. However, one issue I’m currently tackling seems somewhat solvable, and it pertains to vocabulary.

People commonly share what they’ve learned under various labels: hacks, tricks, heuristics, methods, techniques, SOPs, practices, systems, frameworks, principles, etc. But how do these relate, and how much weight should one give to each?

The ingredients that build up an accomplishment setup all have specific meanings, and, unfortunately, they are often used interchangeably and incorrectly. What really bugs me is when concepts of different magnitudes are mixed up—when a principle is equated to a habit or a potent method is referred to as a mere hack. This happens for various reasons and more often than one might think.

So, I recently set out to clarify all the vocabulary thrown around in productivity and business circles and craft it into a simple illustration, one that helps me and others sort all these different concepts and make sense of them.

At first, I expected this visualization to be formed like a pyramid.² I thought I would end up with a layered hierarchy, much like Maslow’s needs, where each level builds upon the one below it, culminating at the top. However, interestingly, I found something else. Instead of a pyramid, I discovered The Iceberg of Accomplishment.

From the surface, icebergs look like pyramids. Yet they are also substantially different: due to the density of ice compared to seawater, over 90% of an iceberg is submerged underwater. This captures the idea that the densest and most important elements of accomplishment setups are hidden below the surface. They become visible only to serious practitioners courageous enough to dive underwater.

In today’s piece, I am taking you on an adventurous trip from the tip of the iceberg through the water’s surface and down to its bedrock. So brace yourself because it’s bound to get cold. And you are bound to undergo a paradigm shift along the way.