Micro Class: Permanent Beta Mode
17 Dec 2025 · 3 min
Brian Johnson on treating life like permanent beta: test constantly, call mistakes bugs, keep optimizing. Gmail stayed in beta for years. Amazon runs on "Day One" thinking. The point is never finishing, always improving.
Chapters
Hey, this is Brian with a quick note before we jump into today's show. If you haven't signed up for the Optymyze premium membership yet, A, what are you waiting for? And B, you can now get the first 30 days of optimizing for free. Just cruise on over to Optimize me and sign up. Over 10,000 people now start their days with Optymyze so they can actualize their potential, including best selling authors, leading entrepreneurs and even NCAA championship teams. Two of them. So again, 30 days of free optimizing at Optimize Me. If you're already a member, thanks for your support. Now for the show.
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on permanent beta mode. It's inspired by Maximize your potential by Jocelyn glei and the 99U team. Permanent beta. That's what we want to put ourselves into if we want to maximize our potential. Think of this. Google launched Gmail in beta mode, right? How long did they stay in beta mode? How about five years? They had millions of users before they pulled themselves out of beta and they were officially ready to say they were complete. That's awesome. In the book they talk about Amazon as well. Jeff Bezos talk tells his shareholders basically that Amazon is always at day one. It's day one at Amazon. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of our potential. It's kind of like a permanent beta now. How do we apply that to our lives? Well, there you are. You are in permanent beta now, which means you celebrate your bugs. You realize you have a lot more testing to do and ultimately that's a really optimistic place to live from because you know you have the power to consistently optimize and actualize. So put yourself in permanent beta. What bugs do you have that need some squishing? Own them, test different approaches, adapt, evolve. Become that which you are destined to be.
Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow miss class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up.
Yet.
If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me connecting those ideas to other great books and helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do is something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each other great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101, confidence 101, business 101 meditation 101 that sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson.
Me join.










