Don't Build Rube Goldberg Machines

Hi,

Last year, I took a trip to the La Marzocco HQ and did a tour. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done, something I have mentioned many times in this newsletter.

They had something on the tour that I think about all the time. They had built a Rube Goldberg Machine to illustrate the complexity involved in making just one espresso in one of their machines. It covered everything, from growing and harvesting the beans to roasting, assembling the machine, and everything in between.

The power of a Rube Goldberg Machine is that it shows how even simple things, like making a cup of coffee, actually go through a relatively complicated process.

So why is this newsletter titled, “Don’t Build a Rube Goldberg Machine?”

A Rube Goldberg Machine is essentially a physical portrayal of losing the forest for the trees. The most important part of the system becomes whatever step it is currently on, rather than ensuring the final outcome is actually achieved. The focus is on making the current step work, rather than on whether the whole process is effective.

This same issue happens when we build businesses, habits, or even relationships. We start focusing so much on the immediate task in front of us that we lose sight of what it's all building toward. When your role in a business shifts, when the nature of a habit changes, or when the way you spend time with someone evolves, can you still keep your eye on the bigger picture? The purpose of these things has always been greater than just the actions required to maintain them.

A Thought Experiment

Imagine you’re in an intro-level engineering class, and the assignment is for you and your classmates to create a Rube Goldberg Machine that turns on a light switch across the room.

Your specific task is #17, your job is to ensure that your system connects task #16 to task #18. At the end of the class period, your professor announces that they are removing task #17 and simply connecting task #16 to task #18 because it’s a more efficient way to turn on the light switch.

Are you happy that the system is now better at accomplishing the goal? Or are you upset that your work was removed?

The goal of the machine was to turn on the light switch, not to keep as many steps in place as possible.

We have to see the forest, even if our job is to focus on a single tree.

The Hero’s Journal

Going into 2022, we had some big decisions to make. The biggest was: where are we going to live? The lease at the Hero’s Headquarters was only 18 months long and was coming up at the end of April.

We used the HQ for a few key things: shipping, content creation, and as our shared living space.

We had also become reliant on our proximity to each other to cover up inefficiencies in how we ran the business. Nick and I could knock on each other’s bedroom doors at any hour of the day to solve a problem that wasn’t working the way we had hoped.

Once we decided that we weren’t going to renew our lease, we had to take a hard look at the business. Where were we going to ship our product? How were we going to conduct meetings? Who was going to work here?

We had to reevaluate our systems, identify inefficiencies, and figure out how to fix them.

On a personal level, Nick and I also had to assess our roles. For me, I liked having a warehouse. If I felt like I hadn’t done anything all day, I could go downstairs, pack orders, and look at the pile of shipments and feel accomplished.

But was that best for the business? Probably not. I was holding onto my part of the Rube Goldberg Machine. I had lost sight of the work that actually mattered just so I could feel productive.

I mistook movement for productivity.

The reality was that our 3PL, Shipzoom, was far better equipped to fulfill our orders than I ever could have been.

I will say, when we had Anthony in the warehouse, he did a great job. But I couldn’t afford to pay him what he would have needed to make it his full-time gig.

Over the first six months of 2022, Nick and I had to look at every system inside our Hero’s Journal Rube Goldberg Machine and make decisions that optimized the outcome, not just preserved specific functions.

Atypical

One of the hard parts about Rube Goldberg Machines is that they take a lot of effort to maintain. When you’re building something new, you have to connect the pieces with elbow grease and duct tape.

Trey has been working through an injury, which takes both physical and emotional energy. Because of the extra work it took to recover, he decided not to film anything.

So instead, he did his second-ever livestream and was able to talk directly to his audience. It was cool to see that even when the Rube Goldberg Machine broke under unexpected stress, he still found an output that fulfilled the ultimate goal of the business, to connect with people and help them grow.

Big ups.

Reading

I listened to Chris Williamson and Andrew Schulz talk, and honestly, I was feeling drained this week, so I expected a funny, lighthearted conversation. Instead, it ended up being a deep discussion on the beauty of parenthood and the challenges Schulz and his wife faced with conception. I wasn’t expecting it to be so powerful, but it was.

In Robert Caro’s book Working, there’s a section I read last week that has been rattling around in my brain ever since.

He talks about how he applied for a writing program at the New York Public Library. The most important part of the program? You got your own desk where you could leave materials overnight, saving time from requesting them each day.

On his first day, another writer asked him what he was working on. He answered, and they followed up with, “How long have you been working on that?”

“Five years,” Caro responded. He felt insecure about that answer, he had initially thought the project would take one year.

The other writer simply replied, “Oh, that’s it? I’ve been working on mine for seven.”

Sometimes, we think we’re doing everything wrong just because things take longer than we expected. But often, we’re just judging ourselves against the wrong people.

I’m glad I got that out; it’s been haunting me.

Coffee

I have been drinking the same coffee for the last three weeks. I keep buying the same beans from the same place.

Sometimes, consistency is nice. Not everything needs to be new and novel all the time.

Conclusion

Outcomes are the result of actions. Focus on the actions, but never lose sight of the outcome.

There are so many voices that say, “Just focus on the inputs.” Most of the time, I agree with them.

But the problem comes when we ignore outcomes completely and realize that the inputs we’re focusing on aren’t actually helping us achieve what we set out to do.

It’s no secret that part of the equation for starting an e-commerce brand in 2025 is making content for Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Trey has a great rant about this, It’s not just about more content; it’s about better content.

You can’t just focus on making things. You have to make sure what you create is effectively getting your point across.

Happy Friday,
Kyle