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Why do we sabotage ourselves?

Read time: 3 minutes

Welcome to David Beats Goliath—for founders who refuse to live small stories.

Dear Founders,

Thinking the algorithm controls your future?
If so, you don’t have a business.
​You have a superstition.

In every generation, people invent invisible forces to explain why they feel stuck.

We used to blame the stars.
We used to blame fate.
We used to blame bad luck.

Today, we blame the algorithm.

This story feels modern because it wears the mask of logic.
Dashboards. Metrics. Graphs.

But psychologically, it’s ancient.

It’s what humans do when agency starts to feel heavy.

The Invisible Story at Work

Once a founder accepts this story, something subtle happens.

They stop building.
They start reacting.

They don’t ask, “What am I creating?”​
They ask, “What does the system want today?”

And that question quietly shrinks them.

The Story Beneath the Complaint

When founders say,

they think they’re making a technical observation. But...

they’re not.

They’re revealing a story.

And like every powerful story, it has a structure. Four moves:

1. Distorts how value is understood,
2. Redirects fear away from where it belongs,
3. Quietly erodes agency, and
4. Trains the founder to react instead of create.

If you want to stop living under it, you have to see it whole.

So let’s break it down—not to shame it,
but to take our agency back.

1. The Slot Machine Fallacy

Blaming the algorithm turns your business into a casino.

Pull the lever.
Post again.
Refresh the dashboard.
Hope this time is different.

If the algorithm decides your fate, then your work has no intrinsic value outside distribution.

That’s the lie.

The truth?​
The algorithm doesn’t create desire—it mirrors it.

People don’t love things because an algorithm showed it to them.
Algorithms show things because people loved them first.

The algorithm doesn’t bake the pizza.
It’s just the delivery boy.

2. Competition vs. the Algorithm

Isn't it ironic?

Founders will fight competitors (tooth and nails!),
but surrender to an equation.

An algorithm is indifferent.
It doesn’t want you to fail.
It only wants users to stay on the app.

A competitor actually wants your customers.
They want to take your market share.

So what’s really happening?

If a founder is willing to battle a competitor
but surrenders to the algorithm,
they’re not afraid of the system.

They’re afraid of being ignored.

It’s easier to say “the system is rigged”​
than to say “my message didn’t resonate.”

3. Consistency vs. Destiny

Platforms reward consistency, not destiny.

That distinction matters.

The Invisible Story:

Reality:​
Platforms reward the boring work:

• showing up
• testing
• listening
• iterating
• being genuinely useful

When founders outsource agency to the algorithm, they stop being creative and start becoming reactionary instead.

They chase trends.
They abandon conviction.
They confuse movement with progress.

And slowly, they bleed out and burn out.

4. Making the Algorithm “Like You”

The paradox?

If you want the algorithm to “love” you,
you gotta stop trying to please it!

Obsess over the person on the other side of the screen.

The algorithm is a proxy for human attention.
It is a lagging indicator—not a leader.

When you deliver real value to real people,
the algorithm has no choice but to follow.

Not because it’s fair.
But because it’s obedient.

Victim vs. Architect

One lives inside the system.
The other builds beyond it.

The Line Most Founders Need to Hear

The algorithm isn’t your boss.
It’s your employee.

And right now, too many founders are letting their employee tell them:

That’s not wisdom.
That’s abdication.

The Choice

Small stories blame systems.
Large stories reclaim agency.

You don’t beat the algorithm by hacking it.
You outgrow it by becoming undeniable.

And that starts the moment you STOP giving too much credit to the machine, and start serving the human at the core.

Yours truly,
David