Systems are better than goals. Systems form lasting habits, and capture life’s asymmetries. Goals are linear, closed-loop objectives that, being overly future-oriented, fail to cultivate mastery of work.
Systems instill rock solid fundamentals, and cast infinitely scalable nets. Goals are isolated desires, and cast singular, specific nets that generate high time preference thinking. If you blindly seek specific goals, your opportunity cost is high as you sacrifice optionality in our highly entropic world.
Systems are kindling for exponentials. They provide a bedrock of action that removes guesswork and emotion, allowing one to subconsciously process otherwise resource intensive decisions. This preserved energy allows the individual to better harness signal, and iterate accordingly. The predictable nature of systems allows for non-linear, asymmetric outcomes (as opposed to prescriptive goals with predefined ends).