Our guest in this episode is Scott Levy, the founder and CEO of ResultMaps. Scott is on a mission to help the world be its “inspired best” by architecting systems that clear away the “friction” of modern work. He combines a deep understanding of neuroscience with a pragmatic approach to technology, helping teams stop “fighting the currents” of their own biology and start surfing them.
We had a fascinating chat about why most of us feel so burnt out (a hint: our work models are stuck in the 1920s) and how to use new tools, especially AI, as a “Lego set” to build better, more human-centric workflows.
Key points discussed include:
* Working with your brain, not against it, by understanding your natural peak performance cycles.
* Using AI as a “Lego set” to build small, focused solutions that solve real friction points.
* How AI forces us to be clearer, accidentally training us to be better human communicators.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
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Show Notes from this episode with Scott Levy, ResultMaps
It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Scott Levy of ResultMaps to the Innovabuzz podcast. Scott’s mission is a big one: to help the world be its “inspired best.” Now, that’s a goal I can truly get behind. But as we dug into our conversation, it became clear that the biggest thing holding most teams back isn’t a lack of drive or even a lack of tools. It’s the invisible, day-to-day friction in how we work.
Scott has this fantastic way of looking at the modern work environment, and he kicked things off by explaining that most of us are, quite frankly, just “swimming upstream” against our own biology. We’re fighting a battle we can’t win, and it’s leading to massive burnout. It’s a feeling I think we all know well, that sense of being completely overwhelmed and overworked, which, as Scott so perfectly put it, “just plain sucks.”
Now, as for the antidote to things that ‘plain suck’...
That feeling of being overwhelmed... it’s also the exact starting point for the rest of our fascinating conversation, and for the deeper work I’m exploring.
This podcast is the beginning of the conversation, but the personal reflections—the “why” behind what was said—are where the real journey begins.
If you’d like to read the rest of this post, where Scott shares his brilliant “surfer” and “Lego” analogies for navigating our brains and our technology, I’d love to invite you to become a paid subscriber.
A subscription unlocks these full, detailed show notes, but more importantly, it welcomes you into a quieter space. It’s where I share my private, 3x-a-week reflections on these conversations about AI, the “behind-the-lens” stories from my photography, and the personal meditations that connect them all.
It’s a place for the curious, and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
Building Peak Performance with Neuroscience and AI ‘Lego’ BricksThe Surfer and the Riptide: Working With Your Brain
This is where Scott brought in such a brilliant metaphor. He said most people are “fighting those currents,” trying to power through the constant interruptions from Slack, Teams, and a never-ending inbox. But the key isn’t to paddle harder. The key is to be “like the surfer that’s using... the riptide.” That riptide, in his analogy, is the real, grounded neuroscience of how your brain actually works, especially that limited three-to-four-hour window of “peak state” we all have after waking up.
Instead of fighting it, Scott’s approach is to understand that current and use it to “get you out into the... best part of the break” (that’s your peak performance) with far less effort. It’s about engineering your environment around your brain, not the other way around. This means protecting that peak time fiercely and understanding that once it’s gone, as Scott says, “You just can’t” push yourself back into it.
Why We’re Stuck: 1920s Manufacturing Brains
So, why is this so hard? I loved Scott’s diagnosis for this. He argues that almost all our modern productivity methodologies, even the ones that feel new, are “rooted in 1920s manufacturing.” They “harken back to physical production,” like an assembly line. These systems were built for a physical world that moves at a totally different, slower pace.
The problem is, we’re now in an information world, where change comes at us at lightning speed. We’re facing geopolitical unrest, constant disruptions, and a flood of new data. Trying to manage this information chaos with assembly-line thinking is, as I see it, like trying to build a spaceship with a 1920s hammer. It just doesn’t work, and it’s the source of all that friction.
Chiseling Away the Rock: The Power of True Clarity
The solution, Scott insists, isn’t about finding a new app to automate more of the chaos. The real breakthrough comes from one place: clarity. I really enjoyed his metaphor for this. He said we have to “chisel away at the rock so we can see the sculpture more effectively.” We have to remove all the things we don’t need to be looking at.
This is what his work at ResultMaps focuses on. It’s about creating systems that force you to define the “shape of what you’re looking at” from the very beginning. What are we really trying to accomplish? What will we say “no” to? What is the actual sequence of work? When you have that level of clarity, all the noise from those interruptive tools starts to lose its power.
AI as the Ultimate Lego Set (Not the Death Star)
Naturally, this brought us to AI, the most powerful new tool on the block. Scott shared a brilliant perspective here, using an analogy I absolutely loved. He said everyone is trying to build the “Death Star” right out of the box, that massive, all-knowing, perfect AI system. We all want the end result now. But that’s not how true, sustainable systems are built.
Instead, Scott advises that we need to treat AI like a Lego set. Right now, our main job is just “figuring out the shapes of the Legos.” We should start small, building tiny, “purpose-built” AI agents that do just one thing really well. As we build one little brick, we find the next, and the next. That, he says, is how we’ll build something truly powerful, brick by brick.
How AI Accidentally Makes Us Better Humans
This was perhaps my favorite takeaway from our entire chat. Scott pointed out that this “Lego” approach to AI has a fantastic, and somewhat accidental, side effect. To get an AI to do anything useful, you have to be incredibly clear. You can’t just give it a vague command. You have to “unpack” your thinking, provide clear context, and define what success looks like.
This process, this habit of getting crystal clear for a machine, forces us to become better communicators. The very skills we’re practicing on an AI, as Scott noted, are the exact same skills that make us better leaders, better delegates, and better collaborators with our human teams. It’s a training ground for clarity.
Your First Action: Find One Friction Point
At the end of the day, Scott’s message is wonderfully pragmatic. The goal of any technology, especially AI, should be simple: remove friction, don’t create it. It’s not about the “shiny object;” it’s about solving a real problem.
He left us with a fantastic call to action. Don’t try to boil the ocean. Just find one “sore spot” in your daily work. Identify that single bottleneck, that one friction point that “just plain sucks,” and go use an AI tool to build your very first “Lego brick” to help solve it.
In Summary: Scott Levy provides a masterclass in building better systems by first understanding our own human limitations. His approach is to stop “fighting the currents” of our neuroscience and instead use technology, especially AI, as a “Lego set” to systematically chisel away the friction that holds us back. It’s a powerful reminder that the best technology doesn’t replace our thinking; it helps us clarify it.
The Buzz - Our Innovation Round
Here are Scott’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.
* Most innovative use of AI to enhance human relationships: Use AI to help structure and provide clear, complete context in your communications, giving your team autonomy and agency.
* Best thing to integrate AI and human connection: Transform static data-entry forms into magical, interactive, conversational dialogues that feel more human.
* Differentiate by leveraging AI: Find the heaviest friction point in your work and learn to apply AI to solve just one tiny piece of it, then build on that skill.
Action
Identify one “sore spot” or area of friction in your daily life, at home or work, and use an AI research tool (like Perplexity or Grok) to find ways to solve it.
Also, tweak your morning routine to block out time in the first three to four hours of your day to get your most important things done.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Scott at ResultMaps.com (that’s one result, many maps) or find him on LinkedIn (look for the Scott Levy connected to Result Maps).
Links:
* Website - ResultMaps
* LinkedIn
* Facebook
* X - @scottilevy
Cool Things About Scott
* The “Full-Stack CEO”: It’s fascinating that in addition to being a Founder, CEO, and Coach , Scott is also a full-stack developer. This is quite rare. It means he doesn’t just talk about strategy and systems from a theoretical level; he has the hands-on technical skill to actually build and architect the solutions he envisions.
* Harvard Coaching Fellow: He was a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at McLean/Harvard Medical School. This isn’t a standard business certification; it adds a significant layer of academic and psychological credibility to his interest in neuroscience and how humans actually work.
* Coaching Veterans to Rise: He served as the Head Coach for Warrior Rising, a non-profit dedicated to helping military veterans launch their own businesses. This shows a deep commitment to service and applying his high-level business skills to a very specific and human-centered mission.
* The AI-Productivity Commute: His personal story about his commute is a brilliant example of “walking the talk”. He uses his 40-minute drive to physical therapy to actively “converse with” an AI (Grok) , record it on his iPad, and have it transcribed later. It’s a powerful real-life example of using AI to capture and structure thought during “in-between” moments.
Video
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