Why I Always Think in Systems and Incentives: My Two Cents 🪙

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Some people think I’m too cold or too detached—like someone who moves through life without feelings. The truth is simpler:

I never chose to think in systems. Life pushed me in that direction long before I even knew the term existed.

One of my earliest memories goes back to when I was seven or eight, working in my family’s small shop. We had a regular customer—an honest, humble businessman, but also a heavy drinker. He always paid, never caused trouble, and worked harder than almost anyone I’ve met since. While many people today complain about 40-hour weeks, he was easily doing 80 or 100. His workshop was his entire world.

Every few days he’d stop by around 6 or 8 p.m., exhausted but upbeat, and order 40 or 50 beers in one go. For a kid, it looked insane. But he never left drunk, never had a hangover, and would tell me stories about impossible clients, financial stress, and the constant fear of losing his business. He barely saw his wife and son because he often worked until midnight or later. And yet every time he walked into the shop, he smiled as if nothing crushed him.

One afternoon, his wife came to see me. She looked angry—and wary. She thought her husband was cheating, and since children “don’t lie,” she came to ask what I knew. After listening to her, I simply asked, “Have you ever gone to his workshop?” I explained what I had seen: he drank with other men for a moment’s relief and then went back to work.

She had never even considered visiting his workshop nearby.

That same night around midnight she went with a pan in hand. Instead of finding infidelity, she found her husband under a pickup truck, covered in grease, trying to keep the business alive so his family could be stable.

What started as suspicion ended with trust. And unexpectedly, instead of losing a customer, I gained three—the husband, the wife, and eventually their eldest son.

Without realizing it, that was the first time I understood what systems and incentives really are. People behave according to the structures around them—not their words, fears, or assumptions.

This pattern kept repeating as I grew older

Growing up in El Salvador—with minimal safety nets, a mother who fought multiple illnesses (three cancers, diabetes, hypertension, and more), and long stretches where she was unemployed—forces you to see the world differently. You learn:

• to read rooms quickly
• that stability is often temporary
• that understanding the system around you matters more than blaming individuals

But there’s another part we rarely talk about. We often focus too much on blaming the system, the culture, or the other side. Sometimes the real leverage point is the person in the mirror. Your mindset, your ego, your expectations — they all influence outcomes more than you think.

In negotiations, in careers, in relationships, one of the hardest skills is recognizing when the version of yourself you’re using is no longer the one that can win. Sometimes you have to adjust, evolve, or even “replace” that version — not out of weakness, but out of strategy. And yes, sometimes that means letting someone else lead when the situation requires it.

You can’t always change the system around you. But you can change the way you operate inside it. And often, that shift is what unlocks better outcomes.

And later, in 2014 when I moved to Europe, this mindset became essential

I arrived to Poland with big dreams — some of them materialized in unexpected ways, like reaching the finals of the Polish Microsoft Imagine Cup — but dreams don’t erase reality.

My reality was simple:

I had no mentors in Poland, Spain, or Luxembourg, even when they were “promised.” I arrived with $500, no EU passport, no sponsor, no family I could rely on financially, and the risk of a $30k loan if I failed my master’s program. On top of that, my scholarship provider openly doubted I would last or avoid deportation. They saw me as the black sheep of my generation.

When you face that kind of uncertainty, you start seeing the world differently.

• You stop relying on luck or goodwill.
• You stop assuming someone will guide you.
• You learn to stretch every resource because waste becomes a risk.
• You focus on the actual decision-makers and their incentives.

Above all, you analyze systems because you can’t afford to navigate blindly.

Emotions still matter, but they can’t be your compass. In environments where every misstep has a price, clarity becomes more valuable than comfort.

I learned that new countries mean new rules, new incentives, new power structures. To survive and grow, you must understand:

• what drives people
• which structures limit progress
• where decisions actually get made
• how incentives shape behavior more than intentions

You might think this is abstract. So here’s a simple example.

One day I attended a formal event in Poland wearing a hat — something that felt completely normal to me after watching it in American movies all my life. A woman approached me politely and said, “Federico, you should never wear a hat indoors here. It’s considered disrespectful.” I asked why, and she explained it was a long-standing social code in her country.

As a New World immigrant, I could have never guessed it. But the logic was clear:

in a country where people are already cautious about foreigners, ignoring a cultural rule — even unintentionally — creates distrust before you say a word.

Respect for local norms isn’t about etiquette. It’s about incentives:

• follow unwritten rules → earn trust
• break them → get ignored or misjudged

That moment taught me something crucial: in new environments, you don’t only learn the laws — you learn the incentives behind the norms.

This mindset shaped my professional path as well

I often seem like a jack of all trades because my path crossed many domains — public sector, private sector, technology, literature, public speaking, entrepreneurship. It wasn’t planned; life pushed me in unusual directions. But everywhere I went, the same structural patterns appeared:

• Legacy systems don’t collapse because of “code,” but because of outdated incentives.
• Organizations don’t stagnate because people are “bad,” but because the structure often rewards caution over innovation.
• High performance rarely comes from more effort — it comes from finding the real leverage point inside the system.

Understanding systems helped me modernize environments, influence outcomes without formal authority, and solve problems many considered impossible.

One example came from my time working for one of the largest Indian IT companies. We were running several RPA automations for a major client, and many of our bots were about to shut down because our licenses hadn’t been renewed. We had been waiting almost three months. If we didn’t get approval within days, the entire service would stop — something I later learned would disrupt factories in France.

It was close to Christmas. My manager was on sick leave. My team leader was out. The person responsible for the bots was out of options. We were stuck — and I could already imagine the email that would follow if the service collapsed.

If the project failed, I would be blamed. And getting fired during the holidays could have meant being deported. The stakes were far higher for me than for anyone else.

Then, one of the Indian executives appeared, rushing between meetings. I recognized him. Without overthinking, I approached him and explained the situation clearly: the risk, the delays, and the potential collapse.

I wasn’t sure he could help. But I knew he understood the incentives: losing a major client would reflect badly across several layers of the organization.

He simply said, “Send me an email. I’ll move it forward.”

It took me longer to write the email than it took for the license to be renewed. Within hours, everything was resolved.

That experience reinforced a simple lesson:

in any system, incentives matter more than hierarchy. Find the person who has something to lose — or something to protect — and things move.

Today, I don’t see systems thinking as “cold” or “detached”

To me, it’s not emotional distance — it’s clarity.

When you grow up with minimal to no safety nets and spend nearly a decade fearing deportation, you lose the luxury of improvising your way through life. You learn to zoom out, anticipate outcomes, and map the architecture behind every environment you step into. You learn to identify decision-makers, leverage points, and structural weaknesses — not because it’s exciting, but because missing them can cost you stability, opportunity, or even your place in a country.

That mindset followed me everywhere:

• moving across continents alone
• navigating institutions without mentors
• rebuilding myself professionally more than once
• working in environments where rules mattered less than incentives
• stepping into new industries and learning them fast
• writing books, building apps, and scaling ideas without a roadmap

People see the external actions. What they don’t see is the internal process — the constant mapping, the pattern recognition, the ability to detach from noise and focus on structure.

Systems thinking is what allowed me to stay calm when others panicked, make decisions when others froze, and move forward even when the path wasn’t clear. It’s why I can switch fields, solve atypical problems, and anticipate consequences before they arrive.

It’s not something I read in a book. It’s the mental architecture built from years of handling realities most people never have to face.

And in a world that’s becoming more complex — with AI reshaping work, global mobility blurring borders, and geopolitics shifting faster than institutions can adapt — understanding systems isn’t optional. It’s a competitive advantage. It’s a survival tool. It’s how you create impact instead of reacting to chaos.

I didn’t choose systems thinking. Life trained me for it. And it continues to guide every step I take — in my career, in my writing, and in the way I navigate every environment I enter.

What about you? Do you like thinking in Systems?