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In a recent conversation between Tim Ferriss and prolific fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, a concept emerged that highlights one of the deepest problems in how we currently organize professional efforts. Sanderson, who heads a massive publishing empire, explained that his entire company, Dragonsteel Books, is designed around a singular principle: "Let Brandon Cook."
The logic is simple yet profound. Sanderson produces roughly 300,000 to 400,000 words a year. These words are the raw material for the entire company's revenue. Therefore, the organization operates to remove every distraction from his plate, allowing him to focus entirely on his high-return skill. While this makes perfect sense for a publishing house, it raises a paradoxical question for the rest of the knowledge sector: why is this "cooking" model so rare in modern business?
Key Takeaways
- The "Cooking" Workflow: High-value output requires a workflow designed around reduction (eliminating tasks) and consolidation (grouping administrative work).
- The Paradox of Pseudo-Productivity: Modern digital tools encourage visible busyness over tangible results, creating a "hyperactive hive mind" that kills deep work.
- Leverage Through Quality: As argued in the "Company of One" model, increasing your skill level provides the leverage necessary to opt out of the busywork culture.
- AI as a Force Multiplier: The true productivity gain from AI isn't replacing jobs, but enabling non-experts to build bespoke tools that solve niche friction points.
The "Let Them Cook" Philosophy
To understand why Sanderson is so effective, we must look at how his work is structured. This approach—letting someone with a high-return skill design a workflow that maximizes the application of that skill—relies on two specific elements: reduction and consolidation.
The Power of Reduction
Reduction involves ruthlessly removing any task that does not require the specific expertise of the producer. In Sanderson's case, this means he is not involved in marketing decisions, logistics, or merchandising unless absolutely necessary. His team handles the friction of daily business operations so that his cognitive RAM remains filled with story ideas.
"Everything in our company is built around let Brandon Cook and take away from Brandon anything that he doesn't have to think about or doesn't strictly need to."
Consolidation of Administrative Burden
Of course, no professional can entirely escape administrative reality. Sanderson’s second strategy is consolidation. He sets aside one day a week for business matters—signing papers, answering emails, and speaking with agents. By confining these necessary but lower-value tasks to a single day, he protects the integrity of his writing days.
This creates a clear distinction between "maker mode" and "manager mode." When the workflow is respected, the output is explosive. The economic logic is undeniable: if you cut down the words Sanderson produces, you reduce the raw material available to sell. It is akin to reducing the steel shipment to a car factory; eventually, you run out of cars to sell.
The Trap of Pseudo-Productivity
If the "cooking" model is so effective, why don't we see it applied to star programmers, researchers, and strategists in the corporate world? The answer lies in the evolution of the digital workplace and the rise of pseudo-productivity.
Pseudo-productivity is the idea that visible effort is a reasonable proxy for useful effort. In an office environment without clear metrics for cognitive output, we default to busyness. We equate quick email responses, active Slack status, and meeting attendance with doing a good job.
This environment is fueled by low-friction digital communication. Because it costs almost nothing to send an email or request a meeting, the volume of these requests has skyrocketed. In a game-theoretic sense, it becomes rational for individuals to offload tasks to others to save their own time. Collectively, however, this drags everyone into a sub-optimal equilibrium of constant distraction and workload saturation.
We do not have Sanderson figures in most companies because we have trapped them in a cycle of checking email 150 times a day. We have prioritized accessibility over value creation.
Using Skill Leverage to Escape the Hive Mind
While not every job can be structured like a fantasy author's—roles like department heads or managers are inherently reactive—many individual contributors could benefit significantly from this model. The path to achieving this freedom often lies in what author Paul Jarvis calls the "Company of One" mindset.
The core premise is that as you obsess over quality and become undeniably good at what you do, you gain leverage. This leverage allows you to dictate the terms of your engagement. You can trade accessibility for accountability.
- Obsess over Quality: When you focus on doing one thing exceptionally well, busyness begins to look superfluous. You realize that meetings and emails are impediments to the actual work.
- Negotiate Terms: High-performing individuals can often negotiate their way out of the "hive mind." For example, top sales staff are often exempt from administrative drudgery because they have a clear metric (revenue) that justifies their time.
By proving your value through tangible results, you can begin to strip away the pseudo-productive fluff and focus on the work that actually moves the needle.
The Role of AI in Future Productivity
Alongside structural changes to workflow, we are entering a new era of technical capability. While much of the media focuses on hyperbolic "Terminator" scenarios where AI replaces the workforce, the immediate reality is more nuanced and practical.
Real productivity gains in the near future will likely come from AI acting as a capability multiplier. We are seeing examples where biologists with minimal coding experience are using AI tools to build bespoke image-labeling software for their research. In the past, this would have required a dedicated software engineer or expensive procurement. Now, a non-expert can build a custom tool in a week.
This is where the economic impact lies: raising the average user's ability to utilize complex tools (like Excel macros or Python scripts) to an expert level. It is not about AI taking jobs; it is about AI allowing knowledge workers to build their own "jigs" and tools to automate the drudgery, freeing them up to "cook" on the work that matters.
A Historical Precedent: Alan Turing
The efficacy of isolating talent to focus on deep work is not a modern invention. During World War II, after his critical work on the Enigma machine, Alan Turing was essentially allowed to "cook" by the British government on a project called Delilah.
Turing was sent to a secure location with the goal of creating a voice encryption system. He possessed the mathematical genius but lacked the electrical engineering skills. Because he was given the space to experiment without the burden of bureaucratic busywork, he spent months teaching himself engineering principles. He eventually combined his abstract mathematical logic with his newfound engineering capabilities to build a portable voice encryption device.
This period of protected deep work did not just produce a gadget; it laid the foundation for Turing's post-war contributions to the development of the first electronic computers. By protecting Turing from the administrative churn of war headquarters, the government unlocked innovation that shaped the 20th century.
Conclusion
The "Let Them Cook" philosophy is more than just a productivity tip for writers; it is a necessary corrective to the modern workplace. We cannot reap the full benefits of digital technology and human ingenuity until we dismantle the regime of pseudo-productivity.
Whether you are a manager looking to get more out of your team, or an individual contributor trying to escape the inbox, the goal remains the same: identify the high-return activities and ruthlessly reduce everything else. When we stop measuring value by busyness and start measuring it by output, we open the door to a new, more effective era of work.
