Just the other day, my sister asking me what to do about her personal growth and I asked her to read about the magic loop. A friend of mine who just moved departments inside a public company questioning whether the move should’ve been to a competitor, and I asked him the three questions.
For years I answered on instinct, but now I keep coming back to the same frameworks for career advice.
Should I stay?
Garry Tan wrote about learning and earning as the pair that decides everything — do either, ideally both, and if neither, leave. The third question is mine after experiencing good, great, and terrible managers.
Are you learning?
Are you earning?
Do you like your manager?
Charlie Munger, in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, helped me expand the concept from a different angle, what should a young person look for in a career?
Late in life, he said that with Warren he had all three.
Now the caveat, because you have heard it and it is true: the fastest way to get a raise is to leave, to job-hop. Early in a career, the market prices you better than your employer does, and loyalty is quietly expensive. I remember finishing Chris Voss’ Master Class followed by his book, Never Split the Difference, when I had to make my move away from Brainly, probably one of the most strategic things I've done for my career, as I wasn't earning and that was a dealbreaker.
I believe people don’t leave their jobs, they often start thinking of jumping off the boat because of bad managers. I did it twice because they made me feel stuck, and I regret nothing. I learned the hard way I can’t work for people I don’t admire, and life serendipity made me cross Legend, which substantially changed the direction of my life working with people I deeply respect.
There is a search phase, where movement is the whole strategy. And there is a holding phase where all three answers come back yes, and from that point movement destroys what you have been building. Most professionals never notice they have crossed from one into the other.
The objective is to play long-term games with long-term people, as big feats come after compounding, like in most good things in life.
Loops beat leaps
As I matured and got to understand the corporate ladder, I soon realized there's always a new top to reach, and I had to keep climbing, so as soon as I was clear on staying the question became how do I keep growing?
Ethan Evans spent fifteen years at Amazon and left with a framework he calls the Magic Loop. He published it as a guest post on Lenny Rachitsky’s newsletter in 2023, where it became one of the most-read pieces the newsletter has run. Five steps:
Read it twice, and you notice what it is really asking of you. Nobody hands you the next rung. You ask for it, you earn it, and then you ask again.
Step four is where most people stop. It requires saying out loud what you want, to the person who decides whether you get it. That conversation is uncomfortable, and the discomfort is the price of the loop.
The loop also explains why “do you like your manager?” carries a heavy weight. This framework cannot run without a person who cares and is paying attention. Run it with someone who is not, and you have only done extra work, a classic recipe for burnout.
My recent experience with the magic loop has to be related with the AI revolution the Product Development community is going through. My business needed someone to lead, a Product person who’s not afraid to get technical. I asked how I could help leading the way, I negotiated a few specialisations and mentoring, I started experiment pods in the company with my expanded product lens, I grew in scope, responsibility, seniority and the check at the end of each month got bigger.
It feels like as I grow older I become more religious, or maybe that's just me coming back to my roots of how I grew up in a very catholic Polish family in South Brazil. Either way, Matthew 7:7 always comes to mind.
Discovery comes first
The three questions for deciding when to stay, the magic loop sets guidance and momentum to keep climbing the ladder, both are extremely helpful if you are confident in the game you are playing, and here I always think of Seneca, “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.”
We build rigorous growth models, strategy docs, and product requirements for our employers, then let luck and intuition run our own life roadmap. Same person, two standards.
There is no replacement for inner work, the soul-searching, and journaling exercises required to find the right port to be sailing to.
I was 19 when I first put in writing what I wanted. I remember writing a letter for the 25-year-old me, visualizing a future where I had figured out how to work remotely to eliminate the unnecessary commute that used to kill me.
After enough mentoring in my mid-twenties, I realized I had to have a few things clear:
Personality type, values, and strengths, so that I could articulate with clear language what makes me unique
Things I love in this life and things that I don't, so that I'm intentional with my choices and compromise less
Rules to my own fashion and style, so that I feel authentic and connected to my inner creative
A few estimations of my F-you number, so that I avoid becoming a slave of capitalism on the hedonic treadmill
A projection of my lifespan, so that I don't take the time we have in this life for granted
Who are you? You have to think it out for yourself.
Once I had those answers, I moved on to think deeper about How Do I Grow and the flywheel of life became an evergreen exercise I revisit yearly.
I love to work with video, and I know content is a flywheel propeller, so I found ways to lead product marketing where I can perfect my editing and camera presence, win-win.
I'm naturally inclined to work with data and engineering solutions, so I found my way into building data products inside a public company where I connect what I know about data visualization because of how close I am to the stock market, massive win-win.
Traveling is how I feel adventure and capture memories, so I chased a business relationship where my ability to travel across different offices is valued so I pair business trips with weekend runaways, enabling me to see the world while bringing more color to the evergreens as I see different horizons, meet new people, try new food, hear new sounds, and cross different scents, life win-win.
I could only find my win-wins after I deeply understood myself.
Sources of Wisdom
Munger, C. 2005. Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger.
Evans, E. 2023. The Magic Loop: A framework for rapid career growth. Lenny’s Newsletter.
Pirsig, R. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Management