# "You Can Do It If You Try" Is Risky. Think About Your Career in Terms of Energy Efficiency, Not Willpower.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/yesterday-i-went-to-mars-7106663/you-can-do-it-if-you-try-is-risky-think-about-your-career-in-terms-of-energy-efficiency-not-willpower
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/yesterday-i-went-to-mars-7106663/you-can-do-it-if-you-try-is-risky-think-about-your-career-in-terms-of-energy-efficiency-not-willpower.md
Podcast: [*“Yesterday, I Went to Mars ♡”*](https://stenobird.com/podcast/yesterday-i-went-to-mars-7106663)
Published: 2026-05-27T12:40:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makotowillolympusmons/episodes/You-Can-Do-It-If-You-Try-Is-Risky--Think-About-Your-Career-in-Terms-of-Energy-Efficiency--Not-Willpower-e3jtnds
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/fcce555c/podcast/play/120560508/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-26%2Fb2de8c9d-7fdb-a5ed-d683-658c4de17c7f.mp3
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Duration seconds: 164

## Resource

This episode looks at a book encountered by chance at a bookstore — *To Everyone Who Couldn't Become a Genius* by Kappy, creator of Left-Handed Ellen — and the idea at its center that stuck: "MP consumption," borrowed from video game logic. The frame is simple but pointed. Use a powerful spell and your MP drops sharply. You win the fight, but you can't move until you've rested. The book applies this to careers — arguing that the core of sustainable work should be built around "high-efficiency cards," things you can do better than most and that don't drain you no matter how long you spend on them. It touches on a parallel idea from Naval Ravikant, and the way the two books seem to converge on the same question: not just "can you do this?" but "when you're doing it, is it eating into your mental HP and MP?" There's also a brief look at how this connects to the AI moment — as more and more things become doable with assistance, the question of what you can *sustain* without wearing yourself down becomes its own separate and more pressing issue. A quiet look at the difference between willpower and efficiency, and why sorting through your own cards — not by what you're capable of, but by what leaves you depleted versus what quietly restores you — might be the more useful way to think about a career.

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## Transcript

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