The Hamster Wheel
Why You’re Tired
Welcome to 2026.
This year, we are doing something different. We are taking “Systems Thinking”, Yes, that massive, academic buzzword and breaking it down into the smallest, most relatable pieces possible.
We aren’t starting with complex diagrams. We are starting with a feeling. You know the one.
It’s 6:00 PM on a Friday.
You are standing in the office kitchen (or staring at a Zoom grid of tired faces). There is cheap pizza. There is warm pepsi. The CEO is raising a toast.
“Great job, everyone,” she says. “We did it. We shipped Project Falcon on time. This is going to be a game-changer.”
You clap. You smile. You take a sip of your drink. But deep down, in the pit of your stomach, you feel... nothing. Or maybe you feel a vague sense of dread.
Because you know the truth.
You know Project Falcon was rushed. You know the “Sales Integration” is actually just a CSV export a junior support agent has to run manually every morning. And, most terrifying of all, you know that next week, the roadmap resets. The CEO will come in with a new “game-changer.”
You will run faster. You will ship more. But the business won’t grow. The retention graph will stay flat.
This is the Product Hamster Wheel.
It is the defining condition of the modern tech worker. We have Jira, Slack, CI/CD pipelines, and AI copilots. We ship code at a velocity that would have melted a server in 1999.
So why do 80% of venture-backed products fail?
Why do Product Managers burn out very easily?
Let’s be honest. It’s not because we aren’t working hard enough. It’s because we are working with a broken map.
The Linear Delusion
We are all children of the Assembly Line. Our MBAs and “Agile” certifications are built on the philosophy of the Industrial Revolution. We are taught to view the world as a machine.
Think of it like a factory line:
Input: Raw materials (Ideas/Code).
Process: The Factory (The Engineering Team).
Output: The Product (The Feature).
Result: Profit.
In a factory, like building a Innoson G40, this logic holds up. If you speed up the assembly line, you get more cars. If you get more cars, you get more money. Cause and Effect are linear. Inputs equal Outputs.
But software is not a car. Your product is not a machine; it is an ecosystem.
It is a biological system. It is a complex web of users, algorithms, incentives, and competitors all interacting simultaneously.
In an ecosystem, 1 + 1 rarely equals 2
Sometimes 1 + 1 = 0 (Two great features cancel each other out by creating clutter).
Sometimes 1 + 1 = -5 (A new pricing tier causes a revolt that destroys your brand reputation).
The reason you feel like you are on a Hamster Wheel is that you are applying Linear Management to a Circular Reality.
You think: “If users are churning, we need to add more features to make them stay.”
The Reality: Adding more features increases complexity, which makes the product harder to learn, which increases churn.
The Cult of Velocity
When we don’t understand the system, we fall back on the only thing we can control: Speed.
We obsess over “Hamster Wheel Metrics”: Velocity, Cycle Time, Throughput. These measure how fast the wheel is spinning, but they do not measure if the cage is moving.
I‘ve worked with founders that are obsessed with shipping multiple features daily. With the assistance of AI, it was achieved. Everyoen high-fived over the “Elite Team Performance.” Meanwhile, the Support team were in tears because every time the code changed, something breaks including documentation and the customers who hated sporadic change were furious.
The engine was perfect, but it was shaking the car apart.
From Feature Factory to System Architect
This series is an invitation to step off the wheel. To do that, you have to undergo a shift in identity.
You are probably currently operating as a Project Manager of Features.
Your question is: “When can we ship this?”
You need to become a System Architect of Outcomes.
Your question is: “What happens to the equilibrium of the system after we ship this?”
Now, you might be thinking: “But Jose, we can’t just stop shipping. We have burn rates. We have investors.”
You are right. We aren’t looking for Slowness; we are looking for Sustainable Pace.
The balance relies on understanding the difference between Motion and Progress.
Linear Efficiency is measured by Velocity (how fast you run).
System Efficiency is measured by Velocity minus Drag.
If you ship fast (High Velocity) but create bugs, confusion, and churn (High Drag), your net movement is zero.
Linear thinking is fast and satisfying in the short term. “We built the thing!” feels good.
Systems thinking feels slower initially. “If we build the thing, we might break the ecosystem,” is a buzzkill.
But here is the secret: Systems thinking is actually faster. By slowing down to clear the drag (technical debt, user confusion), the wheel stops spinning freely, and the cage finally starts to move.
The Monday Morning Reality Check
Let’s start small. Before you log into Slack next week, try this 10-minute audit.
Open your Jira or Linear history. Look at the last 5 Features you shipped. For each one, ask the “So What?” question.
The Promise: Why did we build it? (e.g., “To increase retention.”)
The Reality: Did it work? Do you have data to prove it? Or did you just ship it and move to the next ticket?
The Cost: What is the maintenance tax? Who is fixing the bugs for it today?
The Verdict:
If you find that 4 out of 5 features are “Shipped but Unverified” or “Shipped and Ignored,” you are on the Wheel.
Admit it. That is the first step.
Welcome to 2026. Let’s figure out how to open the cage.