I’ve been thinking a lot about NOISE lately
Noise is everywhere. People building this. People building that. The noise of a startup. The noise of a company. The noise within yourself. Signals pulling you in every direction. Some of it is beautiful, it nudges you forward. Some of it is dangerous, it can derail everything.
Noise is both a boon and a bane.
When you’re running a startup — or even inside a growing organization — you feel it constantly. Everyone’s running like a startup now, trying to catch up with everyone else.
Noise has tried to push me down paths too. Some useful. Some not. So I started creating my own way to deal with it. Because solving for the noise — filtering it, understanding it, responding to it is one of the most important things we can do.
That’s where the FP4 framework came in. Something I built for myself — an internal compass made up of four key questions:
- Fundamental Purpose — Why does this exist? Why am I doing this?
- Foundational Philosophy — What principles is this rooted in?
- First Principles — Am I stripping it down to the basics, or am I following noise?
- Future Proofing — Will this still make sense 2, 5, 10 years from now?
Last month, when three different “urgent” opportunities landed on my desk in the same week, I felt that familiar pull in multiple directions. Instead of reacting immediately, I ran each through FP4. Two failed the test completely—they were just noise disguised as opportunity. The third aligned with all four questions and became our next major initiative.
Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I ask myself these questions. They help me deal with the noise. Understand it. Sometimes even use it.
Ask yourself these questions. See if they help you deal with your own version of noise.
What’s your noise? How does it look? And what are your answers?