Last week I shared Pattern · Momentum · Currents (I) with a few friends and received many sharp responses. One friend pointed to the property of compounding — exactly the heart of what I want to dig into in this piece.
But before getting to compounding, we should clarify the hierarchy of the three concepts to avoid muddling them:
- Pattern (Structure/Pattern): The rules of the game and the environment. It sets the ceiling and the fundamental properties of the system. The stock market is one Pattern; the workplace is another.
- Momentum (Momentum/Position): Your position inside the Pattern. Position determines potential energy. Standing at the peak vs. at the bottom of a valley decides whether you ride the slope or fight uphill.
- Currents (Currents/Flow): The dynamic feedback (kinetic energy) generated as the system runs. Currents are the conduits that connect Pattern and Momentum, the mechanism that makes energy actually move.
If the previous essay was about finding a high-potential position (Momentum), this one is about designing the Currents so the system enters a self-running positive loop.
Everything Is Connected
We usually treat the parts of life as isolated: work is work, investing is investing, relationships are relationships. From the Currents view, they are all nodes in the same big system, tightly linked.
Picture this: a bad investment costs you money (money flows out); your mood sours (emotional flow out); carrying that mood, you have less patience for your partner (relational flow out); arguments lead to insomnia (energy flow out); the next day's exhausted brain makes a poor work decision (career flow out).
This is the terrifying part of Currents. Every node's output becomes the next node's input. When you are inside a negative loop, bad things do not happen in isolation — they topple like dominoes.
Trading Strategy And The Cognitive Trap: Left Side vs. Right Side
Trading shows this with brutal clarity. I used to be a stubborn left-side trader (buying as the price falls), and I paid for it.
A common pushback: aren't Buffett and Graham left-side traders too? Yes — but institutional left-side and retail left-side are structurally different:
- The institution's Pattern: Indefinite-duration capital (paper losses don't blow up the position), deep research benches (confidence in value), and the power to influence boards. They have structural advantages baked into the Pattern.
- The retail Pattern: Limited capital, lagging information, fragile emotions.
For an ordinary retail trader, most left-side trading isn't a value judgment. It is rooted in the scarcity mindset:
- Hunting for cheapness: Eyes locked on the falling price, mistaking it for a bargain, blind to the broken Momentum.
- Fear of altitude: Refusing to confirm correct Momentum (a right-side breakout), always trying to buy the absolute bottom.
Once a downtrend is established, it usually means the invisible structure (the Pattern) has changed. Catching falling knives without a Buffett-style Pattern is just throwing your body into the market's momentum.
Right-side trading, by contrast, accepts that you cannot change Momentum and instead goes with it. Your entry is more expensive, but what you buy is certainty and positive feedback. Your equity curve (money flow) and your emotional curve (emotional flow) move up together, and that resonance keeps your decisions rational.
Amazon's Flywheel: A Victory Of Structure
A higher form of Currents is a self-reinforcing closed loop — what we usually call a "flywheel". Amazon is the textbook case, though most people only see the surface.
Bezos didn't only design a business process. He designed an unstoppable energy loop:
- Starting point (Input): Obsessive customer experience. This is the initial push.
- Loop 1 (Traffic): Better experience brings more traffic.
- Loop 2 (Sellers): More traffic attracts more third-party sellers.
- Loop 3 (Selection): More sellers expand selection, further improving the customer experience (back to step 1).
If it stopped here, it would just be ordinary positive feedback. Amazon's real moat is its structural support: As the flywheel turns, scale effects lower infrastructure costs. Amazon chooses to return those savings to customers as lower prices, which dramatically improves the experience again.
Why can't rivals copy it? Because spinning up this heavy flywheel requires enormous activation energy (years of losses and capital). Once past the critical threshold, the flywheel's momentum is too great for any opponent to stop. That is structural victory.
The End State: Exponential Resonance
Once we understand single-axis flywheels (like a wealth flywheel), we should chase the end state of "Pattern · Momentum · Currents": multi-axis resonance.
Many people assume success is linear: . In reality, it is a multiplicative system:
In a multiplicative system, if any factor reaches zero, the product is zero (lose your health, lose everything). But more thrillingly, if every factor improves by 20%, the result is not 20% but: — doubled.
What we call "attaining the Way" or "physical ascension" is exactly this state: You have repaired the negative feedback in your character (Currents), placed yourself on the right track (Pattern), and ridden the dividends of the era (Momentum). Sharper cognition compounds your wealth, calm wealth improves your relationships, harmonious relationships restore your health, abundant energy powers career breakthroughs.
This isn't mysticism. It is resonance in system dynamics. When all frequencies align, energy stops adding arithmetically and starts compounding exponentially.
In theory, the ideal case is to "attain the Way in a day, ascend at once".
Closing
What we should do is not grind at every single difficulty (using tactical diligence to mask strategic laziness), but step back and inspect the equation of our system:
- Examine the Pattern: Does my current game (career/track) have a ceiling?
- Tune the Momentum: Am I gliding down from a high place, or fighting uphill?
- Optimize the Currents: Which loops in my system multiply? Which divide?
When the flywheels begin to resonate, you only need a gentle push. Time does the rest.