What truly sets people apart is not their tools, but their mental strength.

Note-taking guy says:

In January this year, the Cambridge Dictionary quietly added a new word: FOBO (Fear of Becoming Obsolete).

Let's take a look at three people at the forefront of the AI tsunami: Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman.

They face more uncertainties than any entrepreneur, and nothing is predictable.

They weren't swallowed up by FOBO because they each have a different "mental strength solution."

In today's article, we'll break down their solutions and give you three things you can do right away.

I. Jensen Huang:

Pain is an asset

During internal meetings at NVIDIA, Jensen Huang often says, "I use the phrase ‘pain and suffering' with great glee."

There's more to this statement than meets the eye.

In 2024, he gave a speech at Stanford. The audience consisted of the smartest young people in the world.

Jensen Huang told them, "Greatness comes from character. And character isn't something smart people are born with; it's forged by those who have endured hardships. I hope you experience enough pain and suffering."

To understand this, we need to go back to 1996.

That year, NVIDIA was on the verge of collapse. They bet on the wrong chip architecture, and the company only had enough money to last six months.

Jensen Huang axed all product lines and started from scratch to develop a completely different GPU architecture.

This near-death experience taught him one thing: The lower your expectations, the stronger your survival ability.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck conducted a series of similar studies: When you set high expectations for someone, their first reaction when facing difficulties isn't to solve the problem but to deal with the sense of gap: "Shouldn't I be doing well? What went wrong?"

Jensen Huang doesn't expect things to go smoothly. So when difficulties arise, he doesn't waste time thinking about "why this happened" and instead focuses on how to respond.

It took almost a decade from the release of the CUDA general computing architecture in 2006 to its real recognition by the market.

Wall Street repeatedly asked Jensen Huang, "Why are you burning money on something no one wants?" Jensen Huang replied, "We firmly believe that people just haven't understood what we've created yet."

He accepted that CUDA was losing money and didn't pretend it would be profitable next year. He was convinced that the future of general computing would come and wasn't shaken by short-term losses.

Ten years later, when deep learning exploded, CUDA became the cornerstone of the entire AI industry.

When it comes to "persistence," most people think of gritty perseverance, but Jensen Huang has a different understanding.

His approach is: Accumulate positive feedback so that each investment becomes the capital for the next. Once enough positive feedback is accumulated, you'll be driven by momentum instead of relying on willpower. Each step of positive feedback will fuel the next, and the snowball will keep rolling.

II. Elon Musk:

Break down anxiety to the atomic level

In 2008, SpaceX's third rocket exploded.

The first two also exploded, resulting in three consecutive failures.

The company only had enough money for one more attempt, and Tesla was burning through cash and on the verge of collapse. Elon Musk later said that period was like "being stabbed by several knives at the same time."

Most people remember the outcome: The fourth launch was successful, and SpaceX survived.

But what's really worth studying is what went on in his mind between the third failure and the fourth launch.

A normal person's psychological process in that situation would probably be like this: Three failures. Maybe my direction is wrong. Maybe private spaceflight just isn't feasible. Should I cut my losses? I've bet all my money. If I fail again, it's all over!

So, the anxiety spiral begins.

Elon Musk thought: The third attempt failed again. The reason for the failure was that there was still residual thrust after the new engine shut down, causing the first and second stages to collide again after separation. This problem can be solved physically by simply extending the separation waiting time to allow the residual thrust to dissipate. Adjust this parameter for the fourth launch and keep going!

What's the difference?

Most people understand the first - principles thinking as a thinking tool: Break down problems to the most basic physical facts and then reason from scratch. But it also has a function that's rarely talked about: It's a solvent for anxiety.

The essence of anxiety is the sense of loss of control when facing uncertainty. You don't know what will happen, can't predict the outcome, and feel like everything is out of control.

If you break down a problem to the physical level, the sense of loss of control will be significantly reduced.

When your thinking shifts from "Can this thing succeed?" to "Is there any physical obstacle to this thing?", anxiety will have nowhere to take hold. You may still fail, but you'll know why you failed and how to adjust next time.

Turn off the noise and go back to the physical level of your business. Think about a few questions:

What exactly are your customers paying for?

Which three aspects of your cost structure consume the most gross profit?

Which uncertain factors in these three aspects can be made more certain, or how can you avoid them?

After specific breakdowns, anxiety will decrease.

III. Sam Altman:

Admit "I don't know"

On the desk of Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, there's a note that says: No one knows what happens next.

Why this statement?

In May 2026, at a public event in Sydney, Sam Altman explained his logic: "The progress of AI far exceeds the adaptation speed of enterprises and society. At this stage, the most important thing for leaders to do is not to pretend to know."

Of course, Sam Altman also has his shortcomings.

In April 2026, he published a blog post in response to a long - form investigative report about him in The New Yorker. The report dug out years of internal tensions at OpenAI, including the dissatisfaction of the security team, the departure of executives, and secret memos.

In the blog post, he admitted one thing: "My avoidance of conflicts has brought great pain to myself and OpenAI."

Actually, Sam Altman isn't good at handling differences face - to - face. He can strategize among external stakeholders and reverse the situation within 72 hours after being fired by the board of directors, which is a top - notch move.

But internally, when the security team and the product team have different opinions, he tends to "put it on hold" and "deal with it later." The problems are left unresolved until one day, they explode in the form of a boardroom coup.

This is called conflict debt in psychology, similar to technical debt. It accumulates interest and explodes when it matures.

It takes courage to admit uncertainty, and even more courage to face conflicts.

IV. Mental strength also has a depreciation rate.

How to deal with FOMO?

Mental resilience isn't an infinite resource.

Mental strength is more like physical strength. You can train it to make it stronger, but it has a hard constraint: It must have a recovery period.

Resilience without a recovery period is called over - exertion. The consequences of over - exertion are distorted decision - making, inaccurate judgment, and emotional out - of - control.

We can learn one thing we can do right away from each of Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman.

1. Cut the time spent on "finding the direction" in half and use it for rapid iteration

This is where Jensen Huang differs from most people.

Others think they need to think things through before taking action, but he believes that taking action is the way to think things through. Each step builds on the previous one, and the positive feedback accumulated in the previous round is the starting point for the next.

At NVIDIA, the installed base accumulated by the CUDA ecosystem over 20 years is positive feedback, the 10 - fold reduction in inference cost every year is positive feedback, and the world's highest token output per watt in a 1 - gigawatt factory is also positive feedback.

These things grow on their own when enough positive feedback is accumulated. That's why Jensen Huang has worked 16 hours a day for 33 years. It's not about gritty perseverance but about accumulating positive feedback and rapid iteration.

Once enough positive feedback is accumulated, momentum will drive you forward, and you won't need to struggle hard.

2. Break down your biggest anxiety into details

Anxiety consumes mental strength because it's vague. You feel like the sky is falling, but you can't say which part will fall first. This feeling is the most uncomfortable.

Elon Musk's first - principles thinking is perfect for this. Don't just stare blankly at the words "it's over." Break it down to the bottom.

If the revenue is insufficient, which business line is the problem?

If customers are leaving, which type of customers?

If the product lacks competitiveness, which feature is the issue?

When you break it down to the smallest level, you'll find that there are usually only one or two things that really make you panic, and 90% of it is just in your head.

Vague anxiety is a black hole, while broken - down anxiety is a to - do list.

3. Replace "Our direction is" with "My judgment is"

Review your situation regularly. If there's a better path, adjust immediately.

When you say "Our direction is," you'll tie yourself down. Replace it with "My judgment is," and it'll be logical to change course because judgments can be revised, but directions are hard to turn.

The Long March is a perfect example.

The initial direction was to join forces with He Long in Western Hunan. As a result, the Red Army suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Xiangjiang River. If they had continued stubbornly, the entire army would have been wiped out.

After the Zunyi Conference, Mao Zedong made continuous judgments based on the battlefield situation: Crossing the Chishui River four times, skillfully crossing the Jinsha River, and forcibly crossing the Dadu River. Each step was adjusted according to the actual situation.

Conclusion

FOBO won't disappear.

Jensen Huang's way of dealing with it is to lower expectations and embrace pain; Elon Musk's way is to break down problems and eliminate vagueness; Sam Altman's way is to admit ignorance and maintain flexibility.

If you don't upgrade your "mental strength operating system" when facing uncertainty, no matter how many tools you have, they'll just be a burden.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Notesman" (ID: Notesman