How to Make Better Decisions by Fixing Yourself First | Roblox CEO

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Some mental illness may be partly metabolic—a brain not getting the right energy—and keto changed his son’s bipolar disorder.

  His son developed severe bipolar disorder 8–10 years ago; after years of medication trials and hospitalisations, doctors said he’d be on five drugs for life. An acquaintance said keto had solved her bipolar, so the family found a keto doctor and dietitian. About three weeks in, his son said ‘I feel a little different’—still heavily medicated, but ‘the real him starting to poke through.’ Baszucki now treats mental illness like a broken arm, and the family foundation has funded research on it for four to five years. The theory: some people may not be fully adapted to post-agricultural carb loads.

• 02

  Make big decisions in your alert, optimistic ‘on’ state, not the post-meal hibernate mode.

  He wears a CGM, eats plenty of protein and fat, and avoids sugar and starch that spike glucose. Heavy carb meals produce a sleepy, slowed-down feeling; a fasted state feels like ‘I want to go do stuff.’ Decisions made there tend to be longer-term and bolder—things that seem impossible in a less optimistic mood. He tries to observe himself from the outside and ask whether the ‘decision-making machinery’ is in its optimal state.

• 03

  Less is more: a great knife and pan beat a hot-dog appliance.

  Adding knobs and sliders is easy; removing them is hard. He prefers fewer, higher-quality tools. When reviewing work, his usual notes are simple: can this be simpler, can we look a couple of years out, why do two things do the same job?

• 04

  There is no neutral ground on bureaucracy: if you aren’t reducing it, you’re going backwards.

  Roblox uses the phrase ‘destroy bureaucracy.’ A company that thinks it’s in a fine steady state is often quietly imploding. Organisational sediment is natural entropy and needs an active counterforce.

• 05

  Feedback lands on tone more than content—make it frequent, casual and calm.

  He has moved away from formal feedback sessions to quick in-the-moment comments. Delivered in a neutral-positive tone where people sense his ‘blood pressure’s not going up’ and that he has their back, even harsh feedback is absorbed; delivered aggressively, the trauma outweighs the message. Written channels strip that tone, so be careful with them.

• 06

  The angry email you’re excited to send is a red alert—you’re optimising for yourself.

  If it will ‘feel so good to send,’ don’t. The next morning you can call the person and deliver the same message with more impact, now optimising for the employee’s learning and excitement. Shane frames it as outcome over ego; Baszucki: ‘Who cares about me being pissed off?’

• 07

  Name one decision-maker and give them freedom; aim for long-view goals reached through hyper-iteration.

  Group or confused decisions are often worse than an identified owner deciding creatively. Two Roblox values—take the long view and get stuff done—combine into a ‘magic quadrant’: long-horizon decisions pursued with fast iteration. Reversible decisions should be made quickly and adjusted; knowing when to adjust is the key skill.

• 08

  His mistakes come from being overly logical and clinging to a concept too long.

  He has fallen into ‘I have to go down this path’ thinking without popping out of the box. Looking back, he sees far more optionality than he felt at the time. Executives also inherit survival biology—‘do I have enough firewood for three winters?’—and he treats that uneasy feeling as an early signal to refine strategy.

• 09

  He imagines a fictional rival across the street to stay sharp.

  Asked whether he manufactures threats like Michael Jordan, he says he pictures a company that doesn’t exist—who works there, how many people, what they’re building—as a competitor to Roblox.

• 10

  People attach deeply to digital identity, so platform changes must respect it.

  Migrating avatars to faces that can optionally smile met community demands for perfection: ‘you can’t take my head and adjust a few pixels.’ He thinks they’re right—these are real emotions and interactions. Roblox is at roughly 3–4% of the ~$200B global gaming market (bookings divided by $200B), after a goal two years ago of 10%.