George Mack Quotes

British marketer and high-agency essayist

George Mack is a British writer, advertising strategist, and entrepreneur renowned for viral essays and X threads on mental models, marketing psychology, and high agency—a proactive mindset of clear thinking, action bias, and shaping reality.

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The easiest way to increase my bias to action is to say to myself: “I’m not thinking small enough.” If you’re delaying eating an elephant, think of the smallest bite. If the elephant is too big, try an organ, if too big, try an individual cell, if too big, try an atom, if too big, try a proton, if too big, try a quark. You start with a few quarks on your plate, the 3 tiniest steps imaginable, and before you know it, you’ve got an elephant shaped stomach.

If you create something and you're disappointed that nobody noticed, about 90% of the disappointment can be killed by reminding yourself that nobody noticed that nobody noticed.

Lesson from video games: The most addictive video games in the world avoid overwhelm (this is too difficult) and underwhelm (this is too boring). When designing anything in your life, optimise for whelm. If too much whelm, break into easier chunks. If too little whelm, move faster and harder.

Rule of thumb for spotting upcoming trends: If it’s a talking point on Reddit, you’re probably early. If it’s a talking point on LinkedIn, you’re definitely late.

The single biggest thing the most successful people I've met have in common is that they have nothing in common. They rejected "the way" and did it their own way. Rather than fit into some pre-defined hole in the wall, they drilled a me shaped hole in the wall.