Encodings vs. Strengths
Jim Collins · What to Make of a Life (2026)
Your encodings are deeper than strengths — they're the hardwired patterns that emerge under pressure, the things you can't not do. Discovering your encodings matters, but trusting them matters more.
Core Concepts
The Problem
The 'strengths' framework (StrengthsFinder, etc.) focuses on what you're good at. Collins argues this is too shallow — you can be good at things that don't encode who you are. The mismatch between strengths and encodings produces competent misery.
The Claim
Collins distinguishes encodings from strengths:
**Strengths** are things you're good at. They're often externally validated — test scores, performance reviews, skills assessments.
**Encodings** are things you can't not do. They show up regardless of context, often under pressure. They're the deep patterns of who you are, not what you've been trained to do.
Collins uses the "window frame" metaphor: your encodings are the frame through which you see everything. You can change the view, but the frame stays.
John Glenn's "click moment" illustrates this — when the encoding matches the situation, everything locks in. You feel it physically.
The second-order insight: discovering your encodings is important, but trusting them is harder and more important. Many people identify their encodings but override them because they don't match external expectations.
Key Evidence
- •Collins's matched-pair research in What to Make of a Life (2026)
- •John Glenn cited as the paradigmatic encoding-match example
- •Collins's personal encoding candidates discussed in the Ferriss interview
Practical Implication
Ask not 'what am I good at?' but 'what can I not stop doing, even when it's not rewarded?' That's closer to your encoding. Then: do you trust it enough to build your life around it?
Nuance & Limits
The distinction between encodings and strengths is intuitively appealing but hard to operationalize. How do you reliably distinguish 'deep encoding' from 'strong habit' or 'comfortable routine'? Collins doesn't provide a clear diagnostic. The framework also risks becoming unfalsifiable — anything you keep doing can be retroactively labeled an encoding.
Source Material
Citation Density
New — from Collins's 2026 book.
Related Ideas
Cliff events are the moment where encodings either sustain you or you discover you don't have them
The fire shift may be a shift in which encoding is dominant