Who Not How
Solve a problem by paying the person who already does it, instead of grinding it out alone
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 82%
Rather than asking 'how do I solve this?' and disappearing into books, courses, and trial-and-error, you ask 'who already does this consistently?' and pay them for personalised help. The insight is that the modern constraint is abundance, not scarcity: there is too much information, so the hard part is knowing which to follow. A practitioner who is currently and repeatedly producing the result can diagnose your specific issue and often shortcut a year of misdirection into a single conversation. Crucially, the value of that person is less the information and more the direction and accountability they supply — knowing what to do, why, and having someone who notices whether you did it. Even when they just recommend a book, it is the right book for your exact problem.
Origin
Chris Williamson and Johnny from Propane Fitness describe adopting this in 2019 after years of failing to self-teach skills like meditation, contrasting it with Tim Ferriss's read-a-book heuristic and crediting coaching investment as their biggest personal-development shift of the year.
Core principles
- 01The bottleneck today is not lack of information but which information to trust
- 02A proven doer compresses years of self-direction into direct answers
- 03Coaches provide direction and accountability, not just facts
- 04Life is short — buy the answer rather than reinvent it
- 05Model someone who consistently does the thing, not someone who did it once
How to run it
- 1
Define the outcome
State the specific result you want in one sentence, e.g. a healthier back or a consistent meditation practice.
Pro tip Write it down so you can hand it verbatim to a candidate coach.
- 2
Find a consistent doer
Look for someone who is producing that result right now and repeatedly, not someone who achieved it once and moved on.
Watch out Credentials matter less than a live, ongoing track record.
- 3
Pay for personalised help
Buy a diagnosis tailored to your situation rather than another generic book or course.
Pro tip Even a single paid session can identify the exact issue you have been missing.
- 4
Extract direction and accountability
Get a clear answer on what to do and why, plus a person who will notice whether you followed through.
Pro tip Direction plus accountability does roughly 90% of the work of change.
Watch out Information alone rarely produces execution.
- 5
Execute and stop self-teaching
Act on the customised guidance instead of continuing to research the problem yourself.
Watch out Reverting to solo research reintroduces the abundance-of-information trap.
In the wild
Chris tried to teach himself meditation for years with little progress. In 2019 he hired Brian, a student of Shinzen Young, for formal coaching and finally ingrained the practice, calling paid coaching his largest personal investment of the year.
→ A consistent, ingrained meditation practice after years of stalled self-teaching.
Rather than reading more mobility content, the group's example for fixing a back is to drive to Canada and see spine specialist Stuart McGill directly — going to the proven expert instead of self-diagnosing.
→ Specific, expert-tailored guidance in place of years of guesswork.
Common mistakes
Confusing information with execution
Assuming that reading enough will produce change; most people need accountability and personalisation before they act.
Modelling a one-time achiever
Learning from someone who hit the result once rather than someone sustaining it now gives you outdated or lucky advice.
Is it for you?
Best for
Self-directed people in personal development, fitness, or knowledge work who default to figuring everything out themselves.
Not ideal for
Domains where no consistent expert exists yet, or where the learning process itself is the point.
From the transcript
“always asking, instead of just grinding away in like what book can I read, what course can I do, how can I figure this out…”
“the two things that I think are most important are direction and accountability”
“the problem is no longer lack of information, the problem today is which information”
From the episode
Hacks, Fails & Lessons From 2019 - Christmas Special - #129
Christmas Special