The Subversive Mindset (System Awareness → Novelty → Disagreeability)
Get a system to behave in a way its creators didn't intend, in three learnable steps.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 95%
Croll argues subversiveness is a learnable skill, not a personality trait, built from three components applied in sequence. First understand the system you operate in, then find a novel move within it, then be disagreeable enough to actually do something others can't or won't. It reframes go-to-market as finding an unfair, unprecedented advantage rather than picking a standard growth lever.
Origin
Developed by Alistair Croll and co-author Emily Ross for their book 'Just Evil Enough,' drawing on neuroscience research and 300-400 historical case studies. The 'just evil enough' phrase originated in advice Croll gave Lenny Rachitsky during the Year One Labs accelerator startup Localmind.
Core principles
- 01Your startup is by definition a disagreement with the status quo, and the status quo was built by those in power who won't like you breaking their rules
- 02Subversive is not evil: it means using a system in a way its creators didn't intend
- 03Distribution and an unfair advantage matter as much as the next product feature
- 04Disagreeable, question-the-game thinking is a trainable muscle, not a fixed trait
How to run it
- 1
Build system awareness
Take a step back from what you were told you have and look at what you actually have. Map the real system you operate in: the platforms, the norms, the value chain, the incentives. Tina Seelik's Stanford exercise (turn $5 into max revenue in two hours) rewards teams who reframe the whole system.
Pro tip Run the $5 / two-hour exercise with your own team to prove how hard go-to-market is and surface who can see the bigger system.
- 2
Find a novel move
Once you see the big picture, zag when everyone zigs. Look for an unprecedented action within the system that captures attention, from Burger King ordering free Whoppers only from a McDonald's parking lot to Coinbase's bouncing-QR-code Super Bowl ad.
Pro tip The best novel moves exploit the mechanics of a platform, not just a funny message (e.g. liking a post from 10 years ago guarantees the influencer notices it).
Watch out One-off novelty stunts are 'turbo boosts' that fade; the durable version changes your value chain (like IKEA flat-packing furniture), not just your marketing calendar.
- 3
Be disagreeable enough to act
Temporarily let yourself think like a super-villain: ignore the guardrails, embrace absurdity, don't pull your punches on wording. Most people who see the novel move still won't execute it because they are too conscientious or too much of a 'Boy Scout.'
Pro tip Use a premortem and counterfactuals ('would this be better a year ago or a year from now?', 'what would a smart coach conclude?') to pressure-test which exploit is worth doing.
In the wild
Stanford students got $5, five days to plan, two hours to act, and three minutes to present. Weak teams bought lemonade ingredients; better teams pumped bike tires or resold restaurant queue spots (~$200-250). The winning team sold its three-minute presentation slot to a company that wanted to recruit Stanford grads, making ~$650.
→ The winner won by recognizing the real system (their scarce asset was the captive audience, not the $5).
With broadband penetration too low for streaming, Netflix reframed the question from 'can I stream video?' to 'can I get all of North America a video in two days?' and turned the US Postal Service into a high-bandwidth, high-latency delivery network via DVDs in envelopes.
→ Blockbuster, which had streaming first, missed the system-level move entirely.
Common mistakes
Obsessing over the next feature
Product managers get consumed by concrete feature work and treat distribution and go-to-market as an afterthought, which Croll says dooms many of them.
Confusing a turbo boost for an engine
Treating a one-off subversive stunt as a growth strategy; the traffic spikes then fades unless the thinking is baked into the business model and value chain.
Is it for you?
Best for
Early-stage founders and product managers who have a product but can't get anyone to pay attention and are relying on a generic SEO/paid-growth plan.
Not ideal for
Established B2B players bidding in competitive RFP markets where buyers score value on fixed, agreed-upon criteria.
From the transcript
“it comes from system awareness novelty and disagreeability”
“to be aware of the system you're in and understand it and then to find a novel approach within that system and then and this…”
“so we think that subversiveness is a skill you can learn”
“you know zagging when everyone else is zigging”
“the underlying idea of the book is that you've got to get the system to behave in a way its creators didn't attend”
From the episode
Just evil enough: Subversive marketing strategies for startups
Alistair Croll (author, advisor, entrepreneur)