🏆M.V.P.

Minimum Viable Philosophy

In business, people will often launch major projects with something known as the minimum viable product, or MVP. It’s the simplest version of an idea that still works. You strip away what’s unnecessary and test the core. If the MVP is solid, you can build on it.

Philosophy can work the same way. The truth is, you don’t need long books or abstract theories to start living wisely. What we need is the minimum viable philosophy: small habits that actually change how you think and act each day.

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Three Daily Practices

1. Pause before reacting.

   Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, wrote: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

   When someone annoys you, for example, your first reaction will be fast and emotional. Catch it. Count to three. That small pause is your space. In it, you reclaim the freedom to decide how you’ll respond.

2. Name the feeling.

   In Zen Buddhist practice, Thich Nhat Hanh often taught that simply recognizing and naming an emotion, maybe saying “Hello, anger” or “I see you, fear” for example, is a form of mindfulness. By naming the feeling, you hold it gently, instead of being swallowed by it. Try it the next time a wave of irritation or envy arises. Naming disarms it.

3. Take the smallest useful step.

   The Stoics taught that we should focus on what’s within our control, not what isn’t. The smallest useful step embodies that principle. Ask: What’s one thing I can do right now that improves this moment? It might be taking a breath, offering a kind word, or simply letting go of a complaint. Each small step is a Stoic act of choosing what is up to you. Like an old boss of mine used to ask during times of high stress, “What’s the next right thing you can do?”

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Why It Works

Big decisions—changing jobs, ending relationships, starting something new—are really just a series of small choices stacked together. If you can practice clarity and steadiness in small moments, you’ll be better prepared when the big ones arrive.

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Final Thought

Your MVP isn’t an app or a product—it’s a way of thinking. A minimum viable philosophy doesn’t promise to answer every big question. It simply gives you tools you can use today:

Pause.

Name what you feel.

Take one good step.

What’s your MVP? Let me know in the comments.

Matt

Ruins of Pallais Gallien, Bordeaux FR. The MVP remains…all these years later.