Notes
Sunday, December 21, 2025

Signal vs. Noise: The Art of Ruthless Focus

Kevin O'Leary recently shared a story about Elon Musk that stopped me in my tracks.

Apparently, if you’re talking to Musk and you’re not saying something valuable, he’ll just walk away. Mid-conversation. No "sorry," no "let’s catch up later." He just leaves.

O'Leary calls this being "100% Signal."

He compared it to Steve Jobs, who he claimed was "85% Signal." Jobs once made a PM cry because she wanted to spend $2 million on market research for Oregon Trail. He told her, "We don't do market research. Nobody knows what they want until I tell them... Shut up and go to work."

Brutal? Absolutely. Toxic? Probably.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most Product Managers are drowning in noise, and we’re too polite to turn the volume down.

The Core Insight

We confuse "motion" with "progress."

In the PM world, "Noise" looks like work. It looks like back-to-back alignment meetings, endless Slack threads debating edge cases, and 40-page requirement documents that nobody reads. We feel productive because we are busy.

But "Signal" is the only thing that matters. Signal is shipping value. Signal is unblocking engineering. Signal is making a hard decision so the team can move.

If you aren't ruthlessly filtering the noise, you aren't managing the product. You're just managing the bureaucracy.

The Breakdown

O'Leary defines "Signal" as time spent advancing your goals, and "Noise" as everything else. For a PM, the distinction is usually:

This is Signal:

  • Talks with customers that change your roadmap.

  • The 5 minutes you spend unblocking a dev.

  • Writing the one-pager that clarifies the strategy.

  • Saying "No" to a distraction.

This is Noise:

  • The "weekly sync" where everyone just reads their status updates.

  • Debating a button color for 45 minutes with three stakeholders.

  • Market research on a feature you already know you need to build.

  • Formatting slides to look pretty.

The interest compounds here. Every hour you spend on Noise isn't just lost time; it drains the mental energy you need for the high-stakes decisions (the Signal).

How to Actually Do This (Without Getting Fired)

You are not Elon Musk. You cannot just walk out of a meeting with your VP of Sales. But you can increase your Signal-to-Noise ratio starting Monday.

1. The "No Agenda" Veto

Stop going to meetings without agendas. If an invite lands on your calendar titled "Sync" or "Touch base," decline it tentatively. Ask: "What decision are we making in this meeting?" If there’s no decision, it’s an email.

2. Kill the "Zombie Research"

Take a page from the (harsh) Steve Jobs playbook. We often use research as a procrastination tool because we're afraid to make a bet.

  • Stop: Spending weeks validating low-risk features.

  • Start: Using your product sense. If the downside is low, just ship it and learn. Don't spend $2M researching a $10k feature.

3. The "Headphones On" Rule

Signal requires deep work. You cannot find signal in 15-minute increments between Zoom calls. Block off 2 hours a day on your calendar. Mark it as "Strategy" or "Focus." Do not open Slack. If people get mad, tell them you were actually working. Results forgive a lot of unresponsiveness.

Common Pitfalls

Being a Jerk != Being Focused

Musk and Jobs got away with being abrasive because they owned the company. You don't. You can be ruthless with your time without being ruthless with people. You can decline a meeting politely. You can cut a conversation short with kindness ("I want to respect your time and I think we have what we need").

Confusing Urgency with Signal

Slack is an urgency factory. Just because a message is bold and red doesn't mean it's Signal. Usually, it’s someone else’s anxiety disguised as a priority. Let it sit for 20 minutes. 80% of the time, they solve it themselves.

The Bottom Line

O'Leary said Musk is 100% Signal. Jobs was 85%.

Most PMs are operating at about 30% Signal.

You don't need to be a visionary genius to be better at this job. You just need to stop tolerating the noise. Next time you're in a meeting that's going nowhere, ask yourself: "Is this advancing the goal?"

If the answer is no, find a way to walk away.

Deep Dive & References