Modern Compass Newsletter

Hello there,

A lot of books frame personal growth as a path to mastery.
But real growth doesn’t have a finish line—it’s ongoing.

In this issue, I’m sharing a more grounded way to think about progress—straight from what I’ve been writing in Modern Compass called Minimum Requirements.

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Featured Insight: Minimum Requirements

The concept of minimum requirements landed for me in two distinct ways.

First, I thought about video games, software, and now AI—how each lists minimum requirements to function. There’s a baseline that must be met just to work at all, and beyond that, performance improves depending on the hardware.

Second, I thought about building.
You can’t construct anything—physically or in your life—without knowing what materials you need and what the bare essentials are just to begin.
That’s what minimum requirements gives you: a blueprint for forward motion.

And when you’re clear on your minimums, growth becomes more practical, more sustainable, and far more aligned—with where you are and where you’re going.

For this issue of the newsletter, I’m giving you a deeper glimpse into Modern Compass through the Trust Direction. This chapter is fully drafted within the book—the structure is there, and while it may evolve with editing and feedback, the core is solid.

I’m sharing this with you now because I want your perspective to be part of that refinement.

What you’ll find here is a look at the four layers of the Trust direction, each with:

• one minimum requirement—something that must be present to be meeting this layer of the compass.

• and one drag—the resistance that slows you down when that minimum isn’t being met.

Drag is what shows up when your foundation isn’t ready.
It’s not always obvious. Sometimes it looks like effort, or overthinking, or burnout, but underneath, something essential is missing.

Often, drag is the inverse of a minimum requirement—but not always. It’s your signal that something’s off before progress stalls.

Before we dive deeper, there are 3 important things to keep in mind with minimum requirements.

1. They’re not roadblocks—they’re welcome signs. They show you what needs to be built in order to grow, not what’s missing in you.

2. Each layer has multiple dimensions. What I’ve shared here is just one entry point per layer—a starting place to work from, not an exhaustive checklist.

3. I’m not writing this from a place of mastery—but from a place of active learning. These minimum requirements come from lived experience, supported by research, and shaped by patterns I’ve tested, struggled with, and found useful enough to share.

Modern Compass Diagram

This is an early look at the Modern Compass framework.
While it will continue to be refined, the core structure is in place—and I wanted to share it with you now, especially as I explore how each direction comes to life in practice.

For awareness, I’ve defined all four directions and all layers, but I’m only showing Trust below. You’ll also find a Trust-only version below in a larger font for easier reading, I know the wording is hard to read in this one.

The way to interpret these layers within the Modern Compass is simple:
You start from the bottom—building your foundation—and move upward as you meet the minimum requirements for each layer.

But moving up doesn’t mean you’ll never have to return.
Big life shifts—becoming a parent, changing careers, moving states, divorce, losing someone close—can all introduce drag in layers you thought were solid.

When that happens, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It just means your foundation needs attention again.

Minimum Requirements

Tenets of Trust

Definition: core principles that shape how trust is built, maintained, and recalibrated—across relationships, institutions, and everyday interactions—grounded in consistency, integrity, and context.

Minimum Requirement example: You naturally question information and sources before accepting them at face value.

Drag example: When you reflect on closest relationships, you feel more often than not your trust has been misplaced.

Trust in Humanity

Definition: Shared experience before shared beliefs is a foundational perspective that allows for cooperation, connection, and optimism about the collective future of humankind. It reminds us that trust doesn’t require total agreement—it starts when people can stand in the same moment, even if they don’t stand for the same things.

This layer in particular I think needs deeper explanation. You might be wondering why Trust in Humanity comes second—right after Tenets of Trust. There’s a reason for that.

Before we talk about how we extend trust outward—to strangers, groups, or society—we need to first understand how trust works in general and again keep in mind this book is targeting young adults that may not have a good working knowledge of trust building. That’s what the tenets give us: a baseline for how trust is built, maintained, and recalibrated. Once you know how trust operates, then we can ask the harder question: how do you trust people you don’t personally know?

You also might be wondering why something so basic—like trusting in humanity—needs a section at all. That’s exactly the problem: we’ve mistaken this as obvious, when in reality it’s eroding.

We’re seeing a growing divide—politically, socially, culturally—that’s only accelerating. This divide isn’t one-sided; it’s showing up across perspectives and communities.

At first glance, it might seem like technology could bring us closer. In reality, it often does the opposite. Tools like generative AI have the potential to reduce friction, yet they’ve introduced new forms of distrust—deepfakes, false narratives, and synthetic manipulation.

If we want to rebuild trust across this divide, it starts here:
Shared experience before shared beliefs.

We have to re-center the fact that we’re human before we’re anything else.
That trust can begin with presence, empathy, and lived connection—even when we disagree on everything else.

Minimum Requirement example: You recognize the humanity in others, even when you disagree with them.

Drag example: You reject perspectives different from your own, assuming those who disagree with you are misinformed, immoral, or unintelligent.

Informed Trust

Definition: A mindset that balances critical thinking, calibrated trust, and verified information (past behaviors, present context, and future reliability) with intuition to assess the trustworthiness of individuals, institutions, or situations.

Minimum Requirement example: You seek new experiences to refine your instincts, identifying patterns that calibrate your sense of trust. You stay open to insights from both successes and failures.

Drag example: You fail to notice changes in behavior or patterns that signal potential issues

Profound Trust

Definition: This is the ultimate trust established over time through consistency, matched trust, emotional safety, and shared vulnerability.

Minimum Requirement example: You’ve built at least one relationship outside your family where all four conditions are present:
▸ Aligned Character (how your values play out when you’re together)
▸ Two-Way Trust Deposits (moments where both people show up, follow through, or keep small promises)
▸ Emotional Safety
▸ Shared Vulnerability

To be clear a family members can be part of profound trust, but much of that trust is inherited and doesn’t always take as much effort. For that reason, at least one relationship where all these conditions are met must be external to family to meet this minimum requirement.

These are the types of relationships where profound trust shows up.

• Close Friendships

• Intimate Relationships

• Family Relationships

Other relationships—like crisis teammates or role-based bonds—can feel similar and as intense but often lack the full spectrum, although these may turn into close friendships or intimate if all the conditions are there.

Drag example: You normalize one-sided trust deposits—giving more than you receive—and convince yourself it’s fine.

So what’s the takeaway here?

Minimum requirements aren’t barriers. They’re welcome signs—showing you what you need to step into each layer of Modern Compass confidently.
They help you move forward with intention, clarity, and direction—across the four directions of your Modern Compass.

And when you know what’s required, you also can get a better idea what’s missing.
That’s where real progress begins.

Interactive Activity: Spot the Drag

This activity uses what you learned about minimum requirements and drag, and puts that to a more personalized use of the concepts.

You don’t need to fix everything at once.
Just start by noticing where the drag is showing up.

Step 1: Choose One or Two Life Areas
Look at the list below.
Pick one or two areas where you're feeling stuck, slow, or drained—where progress feels harder than it should:

• Work or career

• Relationships

• Health or energy

• Personal growth

• Creative or side projects

Step 2: Describe the Drag
What’s happening in that area that feels like drag?
Not failure. Just friction.

Examples:

• “I keep avoiding hard conversations”

• “I’m scattered with side projects”

• “I’m consuming but not applying anything”

Step 3: Flip It
Now ask yourself, what’s the minimum requirement I haven’t fully met here? 

Chances are, it’s the inverse of your drag:

• Avoiding hard convos → Need for open, honest dialogue

• Scattered projects → Minimum focus and structure

• Passive growth → Real-world application

Step 4: Choose One to Act On
Of the two, pick one area to reinforce this week.
What’s one simple action you can take to meet that minimum and reduce the drag?

Your Compass in Action (Engagement & Call to Action)

Did this topic hit something real for you? Spark a new insight?

I want to hear what clicked—and what didn’t.

This is your chance to shape how this concept shows up in the Modern Compass book. Hit the link below and share what landed, what felt off, or where you’d take it next.

I read every response—and your feedback just might influences what stays and what gets sharpened.

Referral Program

Modern Compass Book Progress

With the final 2 Trust chapters done, I’m setting my sights on the Relationships direction next. I’ve been thinking a lot about what type of things I needed to hear in my late teens and twenties. Now, life looks different. I’m not looking to build a social circle—I’m learning how to invest in the relationships that already matter: with my wife, kids, close friends, and family.

That shift—between seeking and sustaining—is at the heart of how I’m structuring this next section. It’s already challenging me in the best way.

Recommendation

Occasionally I might throw in recommendations here and I stumbled upon this newsletter. It provides weekly updates on things of interest of the week prior that I’ve found pretty interesting thus far. Interestingly I saw an article about AI 2027 predictions from this newsletter that showed up in a very popular podcast called Hardfork by New York Times (also a good recommendations if interested in AI).

Stay Connected and Keep Exploring

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