Systems

Systems are everywhere.

Your job is a system.

Your house is a system.

Your car, your company, your investments—systems.

I’m German. Systems are our love language.

But here’s the thing: if you don’t manage them, systems turn into headaches, heartaches, and liabilities in no time.

At this stage of life—mid-career, with a young family (everyone but me), real estate, companies, and investments—I juggle a bunch of systems. Some I want to run manually. Others I want to automate.

I don’t view my wife, my kid, my friendships, or my day job as systems to optimize. Those are the systems I want to run by hand. I want to be present, messy, and human.

Everything else? I try to automate and simplify—even if that means leaving a little performance on the table.

IdeaMensch has run for 15+ years because it’s simple: written interviews, published once per week. Not flashy, but sustainable and profitable.

Real estate: I chose commercial over residential investments—longer leases, less maintenance, tenants handle repairs.

Our house: Small, efficient, new. No remodels, no construction projects, no “dream kitchen” headaches.

Investments: Index funds. No stock picking, no endless research, no fantasy that I’ll beat the market.

The cabin: A total luxury system. Worth the hassle (for now) because of the experiences we create. But even here, I simplified—no running water, no septic, fewer worries.

Teaching: I love it, but I only teach online in the spring. Automated enough to give me the freedom to travel with my family.

Systems are everywhere.

The art lies in choosing which ones to run manually and which to automate. The more you automate the right systems, the better you can show up for the ones that matter most.