Knowledge and skills is another great loop to attract the other loops. Unique network access and strength? Knowledge and skills allows you to build this as well. Specialized knowledge and skills makes brand legibility much easier too.

do find your tribe of collaborators and go deep with a handful, involving them in the value building process — developing skills, building something together, etc.)

the best companies not only understand their “funnels” (where their users are coming from and convert down the stack), but also their loops (the process by which one cohort of users not only retains but leads to an additional cohort of users).

You’ll need the “minimum viable money” to keep going and not have to take a job that doesn’t increase your specialized knowledge & skills. You’ll want the “minimum viable network”, to know the right people to help, and the “minimum viable legibility (reputation)” to get them to care.

Respect — this is a loop that most enables other loops, but you can't go after it directly.

the biggest career mistake young people make is that they’re afraid to look dumb, so they follow safe paths to cap their downside, not realizing that they cap their upside too as a result.

Loops, in other words, are what lead to sustainable, compounding, growth. In a career context, this means asking: “What are the things you can do today which make it easier to obtain your desired resources and career opportunities tomorrow, in a way that’s defensible and compounds overtime?”

It is yet (yet!) another thing to be well *respected* among these strategic networks — as in, they not only like you, they deeply respect you and would, say, let you invest in their company at better terms, pay you for your expertise, or some other metaphorical equivalent.

networks are heat-seeking missiles for value. Provide the value, and the network is there.