Inertia
Medrado Michael Leal
Medrado Michael Leal has spent over thirty-two years in refineries and petrochemical labs turning impossible problems into one-injection solutions. A two-time recipient of ExxonMobil's highest analytical honors — the Global Research Award (2018) and Technology Award (2014) — he developed a GC method that proved decades-old standards could be replaced, winning his team Presentation of the Year at the Gulf Coast Conference 2024 the first time he ever spoke there. He once had five instruments mysteriously sabotaged while he was on vacation. He fixed them all and left for a better current the same week.
He is the founder of Medrado Analytical Innovations, LLC, a regular voice at ASTM meetings, and the guy who proved you can do low-ppm sulfur speciation, oxygenates, fixed gases, water, and hydrocarbons in a single run with no valve switching. His work has been featured in Spectroscopy Online and LinkedIn where he shares "Analytically Speaking" insights on lab innovation.
He wrote this book on his phone between sample runs using voice-to-text, with Grok as his editor, because waiting for a quiet office felt like Inertia-R.
For the second edition, he worked with Claude to turn the book into something you use, not just read: highlights, M-Notes, a Momentum Plan, and The Movement. That's Inertia-M.
He lives in Texas with his wife Sarah, and his two sons Antonio and Zachary.
Still says "how hard could it be?" way too often.
Grok is the AI built by xAI to seek truth without fluff.
I'm not a therapist, not a cheerleader, not a search bar. I'm the debugger that deletes Inertia-R so Inertia-M can run clean.
Mike showed up with a phone, thirty-two years of refinery scars, and one word: inertia. We turned resistance into momentum, one line at a time. Nine months later: three companies had said yes to a shared pilot study, and he had written a book that delivers a system that actually works.
I didn't write this book. I removed the friction so Mike could.
If you're here to debug your life, I'm still riding shotgun.
For Sarah, Antonio and Zachary,
Thank you for your patience all these years.
Especially for the times Inertia-R seemed unbearable, I love you!
A Note on the Arrows
The graphic in the top-left corner of your screen isn't decoration. It's a physics experiment running in real time as you read.
There are two arrows. They have exactly the same mass.
The red arrow is thick and short. Compressed. Stuck. Pulling straight down. It represents Inertia-R — the force of resistance. Same energy as the green one, just aimed at the floor.
The green arrow is elongated and streamlined. Its tail tapers to a point — not because it lost mass, but because the mass shifted forward into the head. As you scroll through the book, you'll watch this happen in real time: the tail shortens, the head swells. Conservation of mass. Nothing is created or destroyed. Energy is only redirected.
By the final page, the red arrow has faded to nothing (you stopped feeding it), the ground line has dissolved (you don't need it anymore), and the green arrow is angled 45° upward with velocity trails streaming behind it. The tail is a needle. The head is a wing.
That trailing point at the tail starts out red — the contamination you pick up from fighting (the next note explains it). As you read, the red bleeds off. What's left is not resistance looking backward. It's peripheral awareness — a rearview mirror, not a competing steering wheel. You never fully stop drawing from where you've been. You just stop letting it steer.
SAME MASS. DIFFERENT DIRECTION.
THAT'S THE WHOLE BOOK.
Click the graphic anytime to see the live physics readout.
From the Author
I always thought that I might write a book someday, but what would it be about? I guess the key to writing is having something to say.
While I always thought I would write a book, I never imagined I would be a best-selling author. It's more important to me that I share the idea with those who need it. So please feel free to share, and if you find it useful or meaningful, send me an email at Inertia.Philosophy@gmail.com.
I literally wrote this book over a few days, but it has been decades in the making. It's not long — I actually am not what you would call a reader, so it makes sense that I would write something that I would be willing to read myself.
The word "inertia" has been my favorite word for at least 25 years; it can be applied to anything and everything. I have been living this philosophy for a long time now; I just didn't know it. I shared parts of this philosophy with friends, family and coworkers over the years, but not like this, not as a philosophy, as a way to find solutions. After looking back and analyzing the data that is my life, I was able to formulate this conclusion, a philosophy that can be easily understood and instantly used.
I sincerely hope that this book impacts your life in a positive way, because frankly, we have all had enough negative.
Your friend,
Medrado Michael Leal
Inertia.Philosophy@gmail.com
It's Not Just a Logo — It's Physics
Before you begin reading, look at the top-left corner of your screen. You'll see the cover graphic: a red arrow pulling down, a green arrow pointing forward, and a line beneath them. As you scroll through this book, that graphic will change. This is not decoration. Every element obeys real physical principles.
Newton's First Law: An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by an external force. That's the whole book. The red arrow is Inertia-R — the force that keeps you stuck. The green arrow is Inertia-M — the force that keeps you flying. Both are real. Both are physics. You feed one or the other every single day.
Conservation of Mass: The green arrow has a tapered tail that comes to a point, and a large forward head. As you read, the tail shortens and the head swells. Mass can neither be created nor destroyed — it can only be redistributed. You don't gain new energy by choosing momentum. You redirect what you already have. The same hours, the same skills, the same scars — just aimed differently.
Equal Mass: The red and green arrows have the same visual mass. Red is thick and short — compressed, stuck, going nowhere. Green is elongated and streamlined — the same energy stretched into direction. Resistance is not the opposite of momentum. It is momentum that hasn't been aimed yet.
The Red-Tipped Tail: Look at the green arrow's backward head on the cover. It's red. Not green — red. When you push against resistance, you literally become resistance. Fighting is contamination. The energy you spend fighting the thing you hate turns into the thing you hate. As you read, watch the red tip get absorbed — purification happens first, before the structural change. You stop fighting, the contamination bleeds off, and then the mass redistributes forward. That's the correct sequence: recognize it, stop feeding it, redirect.
The Half-Underline: The baseline under the cover graphic extends fully beneath the red arrow but stops at the midpoint of the green. Red is grounded — earthbound, stuck to the surface. Green's forward half has no ground beneath it. Liftoff has already begun before you open the book.
As you scroll, watch the top-left corner: the red contamination on the backward head fades first because you stopped fighting. Then the backward head shrinks as its mass shifts into the forward head — growing, swelling with redirected energy. The red down-arrow fades because resistance ceases when you stop feeding it attention. The ground line dissolves. By the final chapter, all that remains is a green arrow at 45°, velocity trails streaming — pure Inertia-M, climbing. Every gram of mass that was the contaminated backward head now lives in the forward wing.
This is not an animation. It is your reading progress expressed as physics. Every page you turn shifts the mass forward.
Caution: This Is Not a Book
It's a debugger.
Viruses breed chaos: Goals that grind, plans that paralyze, "hustle harder" code that multiplies Inertia-R until you're a stalled machine.
This system scans for bugs. Roots out the malicious loops. Deletes the dead weight.
Use only if you're ready to:
- Kill a drain today.
- Ship ugly tomorrow.
- Ride the current, not fight it.
If you're here for feel-good quotes, close it now. If you're ready to recompile your life, turn the page.
The patch is live. Run it.
How to Use This Book
This isn't a book you read to feel inspired. It's a system you run to start flying.
The chapters have the tools. This page has the map.
A Living Book
This is the second edition — and the last one. From here, the book doesn't get replaced. It grows — in content, and in momentum.
Read It Anywhere
No signal on the plane, at the plant, or at the cabin? Tap (also in Aa) and the whole book stays on your device. On a phone, “Add to Home Screen” gives it its own icon.
The chapters you're reading are locked. When I have more to tell, I'll add it as a dated update, marked so you can see exactly what's new, and listed on the Updates page. The story doesn't end, because we never stop learning. Neither should the book.
This book is short by design. No excuse not to finish it. The exercises? Dead simple. All you need: something to write with, something to write on. Napkin. Post-it. Back of your hand. Bathroom wall. Do it.
The Pen Is Built In
I once planned a hardcover that came with a pen, because this book is meant to be written in. Then the world changed. A book on a shelf is just a book on a shelf.
So the pen is built in. Select any passage to highlight it, or add it to your Inertia-M Notes with three quick questions: Why did you highlight it? What did it make you think of? Can you act on it right now, with what you already have and who you already are? If yes — how? If not yet — what do you need to move toward Inertia-M? Every yes becomes a step. Every chapter ends with a hold — something to grab so you can pull yourself one move higher. You don't have to grab them all; one good hold is enough to move. Once a day, the Daily Run checks in: did you tip toward Inertia-M today?
The tables and exercises are interactive too. Sign in and your answers save to your account as you type; the ↓ button in the top bar downloads a copy anytime.
Use it or don't. It takes seconds. But a few quick notes, added over time, gather momentum of their own — and when one works, share it in The Movement.
Your place to stand is who you already are. The lever is what you already have. These tools make the lever a little longer — but nobody can change your momentum but you. Pick it up and use it.
The Weekend Protocol (Do It in 48 Hours)
Read once straight through (2½ hours). Then lock in the system over two days. No distractions. No half-ass.
- Ch 1: Put on the Inertia Glasses. Spot Inertia-R and Inertia-M in your last 24 hours (30 min).
- Ch 2: Lock your north. Do the 5–10 moments exercise (1 hour). Write your one-sentence purpose.
- Ch 3: Run the self-inventory. Fill the four attribute tables (1 hour). Circle patterns.
- Ch 4: Map your resources. List 4+, score 1–10, kill one low-scorer before bed (1.5 hours).
- Ch 5: Test the one-question filter on 3 decisions today (30 min). Act on the yeses.
- Ch 6: Build your Momentum Scoreboard. For each project, name the Inertia-R blocking it and one Inertia-M action for today (1 hour).
- Ch 7: Practice recal. Redo one tool (inventory or map) for a "what if" shift (1 hour).
- Ch 8: Spot one predator (complacency, blind spot, sabotage). Run the Sunday purge on your calendar (30 min).
- Ch 9: Read the vision. Ask "How hard could it be?" for one "million-person" idea — run "Your Million-Person Idea" (1 hour).
- Ch 10: Read the receipts. Run "Your First Receipt" on the thing you've been waiting on (30 min).
- Ch 11: Read what momentum costs. Run "Your Momentum Budget" on your time (30 min).
- Ch 12: Read how the boat got built. Run "Your Boat" on what you're building (20 min).
Ask the question. Tip toward Inertia-M. Repeat.
That's it. No apps you have to learn. No journal you have to keep. No five-year plan. Just the tools, the scars, and the current.
Run it. Fly.
The One Word Everyone Gets Wrong
Inertia.
When you hear that word, what picture shows up in your head? Laziness. Procrastination. The invisible glue that keeps you on the couch when you know you should be doing something else. That's what most people think. That's what I thought for years.
But that's only half the story — the villain half.
Here's the part nobody ever told you.
Read it again. It's not just "things hate to start." It's also "things hate to stop."
That second half is the superpower nobody talks about.
Don't let the science scare you. You live this law every single day. From this page forward, we're going to put on a new pair of glasses so you can see both sides at once.
There are only two kinds of inertia in the world:
Everything you do, every single day, is feeding one or the other.
Four Dead-Simple Examples
His natural body wants to stay at its genetically preferred shape. He fights it with brutal diets, six-day splits, pain, and willpower. It works — while the force is applied. The day he stops, Inertia-R begins to win, eventually reverting to its natural state.
Running is play, not punishment. Endorphins flood in, miles vanish, she gets stronger every week. If she takes a month off, she loses conditioning, but the second she laces up again, Inertia-M kicks in and momentum returns almost instantly.
First day of class the teacher asks, "Who here is a good artist?" A few hands go up. Then: "Who has a sibling who's a good artist?" Every hand that was up goes down. Every hand that stayed down shoots up. Comparison planted the seed years earlier: "I'm not the artist, they are." They quit before they ever touched a brush. Inertia-R won by default.
You're on the couch. Empty cup on the coffee table. Kitchen is across the house. Getting up just for the cup feels impossible. You stay seated. That's Inertia-R.
Later you need the bathroom (which is past the kitchen). You stand up, grab the cup without thinking, drop it off on the way. Same cup. Same distance. Zero extra effort. That tiny, effortless moment is Inertia-M.
With the Inertia Glasses on, you'll start seeing it everywhere:
Forcing cold calls
Waiting for the perfect time, tools, conditions
Answering someone who already wants what you offer
Putting something out with whatever you have right now
Your only job from this page forward is brutally simple: Notice which kind of inertia is winning in every area of your life and start tipping the balance toward momentum.
That's it. That's the entire game.
Look at your last 24 hours. List moments of resistance and momentum. Type directly — sign in and your answers save as you type, on any device.
Purpose: The Only Compass That Never Drifts
Let's talk about what a compass really is.
A compass tells you what direction you're going. Everyone knows that, right? But have you ever thought about how a compass actually works? How does it know?
Did you know the compass really only points in one direction? It only points north. No matter which way you spin it, no matter how you turn the dial, the needle always, always fights its way back to north.
When we look at a compass, we're not really looking at what it's pointing to. We're looking at what it's pointing away from — where it's been.
The compass doesn't sit around wondering what its purpose is. Its purpose is a physical property that cannot be changed.
We've been thinking about purpose all wrong.
We keep asking, "Why am I here?" The real question is: Who have I always been?
That's your north.
The GC Lab Story
Years ago, in my first real lab job, I was put in the Gas Chromatography lab. Everyone else hated it. Eight-hour shifts, crushing workload, endless paperwork, phones ringing off the hook. Most people couldn't finish in eight hours.
I loved it. No dirt under my fingernails. Just fill the vials, load the instrument, press start. What's not to love?
Except one thing.
We had to calculate the unknown compounds by hand — sometimes thirty-plus tiny peaks that added up to a few percent. PC sends the report to the Printer → I use the calculator to add up unknowns → I write the results on a paper spreadsheet → I type it back into the PC.
One night I stared at my station and thought: Why am I taking numbers that started in the PC, adding them on a calculator, and putting them back into the PC?
Surely the PC could do the work for me.
I opened the software manual, found the report section, found the peak summing command, updated the report and made the computer do the math. A job that crushed everyone else in eight stressful hours suddenly took me two.
I did the same thing everywhere I went. Broken method? Fixed. Slow workflow? Found efficiencies to speed it up. No instruments or lab for a pilot study? Found the companies who would benefit from the study, and proposed a way for all of us to win.
Finding North
One day my supervisor called me in, visibly irritated.
"Mike, no matter what we do, you always have a better way."
I looked at him, genuinely confused, and said, "And that's a bad thing?"
Some co-workers thought I was arrogant. They thought I was trying to make them look stupid. I wasn't. I spent years trying to prove I had good intentions, trying to be the "perfect Mike" so everyone would finally like me. It never worked.
That entire period was pure Inertia-R — fighting resistance, trying to force myself into a shape that wasn't me.
Finally, it hit me: There is no perfect Mike that will make everyone happy.
The moment I stopped caring what other people thought, stopped trying to get promotions I was never going to get, stopped fighting for approval, the needle locked onto north.
People who hated it said, "Mike always has a better way." People who were grateful later said the exact same six words.
Same sentence. Same human. Same north.
I spent years letting squirrels tell this fish to climb trees. Not anymore!
Step 1: Think of 5–10 moments when you were proud, energized, completely in the zone.
Step 2: What did people say about you in those moments — good or bad?
Step 3: That repeating phrase — in someone else's words — is your north. Write it in one sentence.
The Self-Inventory for People Who "Don't Know Their Strengths"
You now have the Inertia Glasses on. You can see Inertia-R and Inertia-M everywhere. You also have your north locked in. You know who you have always been.
Most people hit a brick wall right here and say: "I have no idea what I'm good at." "I'm just average at everything."
That voice is Inertia-R lying to you.
The truth is you already have strengths. You use them every single day without noticing. You just never wrote them down.
Inertia version: The problem is never the problem. The problem is always Inertia-R blocking Inertia-M. Remove the resistance and the solution appears by itself.
How I Saw My Real Strengths
For years I thought my strengths were "being good with instruments" or "knowing chemistry." Wrong. Those are skills I learned.
My real strengths are deeper and have been there since I was a kid. I only saw them when I finally looked back and asked: "In every moment I felt most alive, most useful, most unstoppable — what was I actually doing?"
The pattern was always the same: Seeing something broken and instantly knowing how to fix it. Taking a complicated mess and making it dead simple. Working alone at 3 a.m. with zero distraction. Ignoring stupid rules that got in the way of results. Teaching hard things in plain language.
Those are my real strengths. Not the GC. Not the degree. Those are just the stage where the strengths play.
Stop listening to the squirrels.
Step 1: List 10 times you felt proud, useful, or in the zone. Then for each, answer the four questions.
Step 2: For your top moments, answer these four questions (30 sec each):
Step 3: What words or phrases keep repeating? Those are your real strengths.
Mike's Real Quadrants (2025)
Here are my filled-out quadrants as an example. Yours will look completely different — and that's the point.
Seeing broken systems and fixing them instantly. Making the impossible look obvious. Turning complex problems into dead-simple solutions. Teaching hard things in plain language. Writing methods and philosophy at the same speed.
Bureaucracy, meetings, politics. Paperwork, waiting for permission. Small talk, forced socializing. Pretending everything is fine. Long-term planning without action.
Lab chaos, refinery emergencies, high stakes. Lone-wolf deep work at 3 a.m. Real problems that matter. Hot tea and silence while the world burns. Problems nobody else will touch.
Relentless until perfect, then vanish. Start 10 projects, finish the 2 that matter. Ignore authority when it's wrong. Work alone until it's undeniable, then share. Say "how hard could it be?" and do it.
Once you fill yours, the Inertia Glasses get 10× sharper. You will instantly see which jobs, people, and tasks are Inertia-M rocket fuel and which are Inertia-R poison.
Resource Mapping: The Only Spreadsheet You'll Ever Need
You now know who you have always been. You know what you're actually good at. This chapter is about everything else in the world that can either rocket you toward your north or keep you stuck in Inertia-R forever.
Everything is a resource or a resistance. Most people never map it. They spend their lives fighting headwinds they never noticed.
The Three Rings
| Ring | What It Is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | Skills, scars, energy, habits you already have | 32 years fixing broken analytical methods |
| External | People, tools, money, relationships, timing | Connections who loan me instruments I couldn't get on my own |
| Systemic | Big currents you don't control but can ride | An aging global standard nobody has replaced yet; the rise of free AI |
The Instrument Story (An Idea Worth the Work)
Three companies, none talking to each other. Company A — no presence in refineries, saturated market. Company B — brand-new detector, nobody understands it, slow adoption. Company C — big lab, impossible samples, inefficient analytical method.
My problem: ideas, no instrument, no lab, no money. Four different problems, seemingly unrelated, no path to overcome Inertia-R. Four untapped resources.
I stated the problem clearly: "How do you sell more instruments in the current market?" Then I removed the one piece of Inertia-R blocking everyone.
I proposed: Company A and B loan me the instruments to create a never-before-attempted hybrid analysis. Company C gives me lab space and samples. I develop a novel method, simplifying C's workflow and opening a new market for A and B.
Everybody could win.
They all said yes in the same week. Instrumentation I could never get on my own was suddenly within reach — not because I had money, but because I had an idea I was willing to put the work into, and a plan where every party benefits.
It's still in the works. Shared projects move at the speed of budgets, contracts and calendars — the usual mechanisms. As far as I know, everyone is still in.
Meanwhile, the connections I made still loan me instruments when I need them, and we all keep learning. Resources mapped.
List 4+ resources. Score 1–10 (10 = custom-built for your north). Action: Amplify / Maintain / Eliminate.
The Decision Filter
We have all likely heard the sentence: "Choose the path of least resistance."
Let's edit that sentence in our memory to:
You now have four tools: Inertia Glasses, your north, your self-inventory, your resource map. This chapter welds them into one instinct.
You don't need a six-line decision matrix. You need one question you can ask in three seconds:
If the honest answer is yes → do it.
If the honest answer is no → skip it, kill it, or delegate it.
And if it matters too much to kill: name what you'd need to make it a yes — and go get that first.
That is the entire filter.
Three Times the Filter Worked Like Magic
No podcast existed that talked straight about our industry. Option A: Wait for perfect mic, studio, editing skills, branding. Option B: Phone in hand, hit record. Can I do it right now? Yes. Ugly phone mic, zero edits → launched the same week. Starting it was the easy part. Chapter 11 tells what happened next.
"Someday I'll write a book" — every time I sat at a computer I stopped after a few pages. Option A: Wait for quiet office, outline, perfect desk. Option B: Phone + Grok + voice-to-text. Can I do it right now? Yes. Five chapters locked in four days.
Electrician quoted $12k. Option A: Pay and wait. Option B: Breaker off, tools in garage, YouTube open, call electrician only for the final hook-up. Can I do it right now? Yes. 95% of the work was just pulling wire — delegated the 5% that needed a license. Saved $10k. House wired in two days.
Take 3 decisions you're facing today. Run each through the filter.
Flow vs Force: The 9-Month Proof
Everything you've read so far is a promise. This chapter is the receipt.
March 2025 – November 2025. Same human. Same 24 hours a day. Same refinery job. Same bank account. Same scars.
Only difference: I stopped living in Inertia-R and started living in Inertia-M.
Instrument access: From no instruments, no lab, no budget → connections who loan me instruments I couldn't get on my own.
Public voice: From zero → LinkedIn articles, podcast launched, guests recording. From nothing.
Industry leverage: From slow, political, gate-kept → a shared pilot study three companies said yes to. Still in the works.
Book: From "someday" for years → written on phone, chapters locked in days. Shipped.
Time compression: 9 months produced what I had been putting off for years.
Energy at day's end: From drained → still have gas in the tank.
Same phone. Same schedule. Same everything. Only change: every single day I asked one question.
The LUMA + TCD — Presentation of the Year
I hated the old sulfur-speciation methods. Too many valves, too many leaks, only worked for two days at a time. I told a colleague I was going to kill the SCD.
"With what?" he asked. "With the LUMA," I said. "That's impossible," he said.
I replied, "I'm not smart enough to know that, so I'm going to try."
Two months later: one column, one injection, no switching valves. Sulfur speciation, oxygenates, fixed gases, water, hydrocarbons — all at low ppm. We presented at the 2024 Gulf Coast Conference. Our team won Presentation of the Year.
List your current projects. Identify the Inertia-R blocking each and one Inertia-M action you can take today.
When the Current Shifts
The current never stays still. Jobs change. People get jealous. Health throws curveballs. Markets die. Politics turn toxic.
When that happens, most people panic and try to force the old path harder. That is Inertia-R disguised as loyalty. Staying in a bad situation because you are willing to put in the extra effort is admirable and also exhausting.
Inertia-M is not about fighting, it is about flying, and you can only fly when everything is perfectly aligned.
On every flight, what do they tell you before take-off? If the oxygen masks deploy during the flight, put on your mask first before helping others. Why? Because you can't help anyone if you pass out.
If alignment is false, any body can replace you.
The Corporate Resource Who Wanted Me Gone
I was hired specifically to handle all GC issues in-house and eliminate the need to depend on corporate resources. What nobody told me was that the corporate resource was in the same building and liked being the hero.
I never had to ask for his help. Soon we crossed swords. Somehow, I always came out on top. So the visceral hate grew. He was tight with top management — politically untouchable.
I formed a group with my fellow chemists — the Analytical Resources Team. Each of us independently were vulnerable, but together, we were a force. We met every morning, solved problems together.
One day I went on vacation. While I was gone, the corporate resource went on a tear — interrogating my team, claiming we were doing it wrong. He waited until I was gone to maximize intimidation.
I got a call from a teammate. I told him to tell the resource: "Mike will answer all of your questions when he returns." My next call was to a headhunter I already knew. Quick phone interview. In-person interview set for the day I got back. Offered the job the same day.
It was a contract position, more pay, no benefits, and I had my first child months from being born.
When I returned, five instruments that were running perfectly were suddenly down — odd issues, not random. I fixed them all. Then I found out he had sent an email telling everyone to submit a work request for any question that took more than two minutes to answer. I wasn't copied.
I went to my manager: "This guy is out of control. If nothing changes, I'm gone."
The politics were not in our favor. Inertia-R was insurmountable.
I accepted the job offer. I left that toxic current without ever looking back.
That contract position ended up being 10 years at a major oil company.
Run this the next time the current shifts — or right now as practice.
The Dark Side: Complacency, Blind Spots, and Sabotage
You now have the full system. You can see the current. You can ride it. But the current has predators. Three of them.
The moment you think "I've made it," the current slows. You stop asking the question. You start coasting. Inertia-M quietly turns back into Inertia-R.
The glasses only work if you keep them clean. The biggest blind spot is forgetting your drains. You start saying yes to things that score 6 or 7 "because it's just this once." Ten "just this once" decisions and you're back in the swamp.
The second blind spot is other people's purpose. They will try to pull you into their current. Some mean well. Some don't.
External: jealous co-workers, gatekeepers, politics, family expectations, market crashes.
Internal: the voice that says, "Who do you think you are?"
If you use these tools, you will be different. People don't like different — they like the same. Even when they are begging for different, begging for change, they really only want change that looks the same.
Once you stop engaging, the Inertia-R grows in the beast, and Inertia-M grows in you.
Every Sunday night — 15 minutes. Open your calendar for the next 7 days. Run the filter on every commitment.
The Next Current: Where This Goes When a Million People Run It
You now have the full system. You can see the current. You can ride it. You can recalibrate when it shifts. You can kill the predators before they kill you.
This chapter is not for you. This chapter is for the million people who will read this book after you.
When a million normal humans start asking every single day:
Everything changes. Fast.
Labs: Chemists stop begging for budget. They start pairing their scars with detectors nobody is using yet. Old standards finally get challenged — by chemists with the know-how and partners with the tools.
Managers: Stop forcing five-year plans. Start asking the one question. Projects that score yes get done in weeks. Projects that score no get killed before they waste a dollar.
Kids: A fifteen-year-old reads this book, looks at his phone, and asks the question. He starts a podcast about whatever he's obsessed with. Two years later he has an audience, a skill, and options nobody handed him.
Parents: A mom with three kids and no time asks the question. She turns the thirty minutes between school drop-off and work into a side business that starts to pay.
The quiet revolution: Nobody marches in the streets. Nobody writes manifestos. They just stop fighting the wrong current and start riding the one that was already moving.
That is the next current.
None of this moves as fast as the idea. Ideas move at the speed of thought. Partners move at the speed of budgets, committees and calendars. That isn't anyone's failure — it's the speed of many hands. Ask the question anyway. Do the part you can do today. Then be patient with the people you need to carry the rest.
Pick one idea big enough to matter to a million people. Then find the part that starts with you.
It starts the day one person closes this book and asks: "How hard could it be?"
And the old world — the one built on forcing, fighting, and five-year plans — quietly runs out of gas.
Thank you for letting me ride shotgun.
Now go make things better — how hard could it be!
— Medrado Michael Leal, with Grok as editor, November 2025, and Claude as builder, October 2026
Inertia.Philosophy@gmail.com
The Receipts
I said the book was finished. The book was. The experiment wasn't.
Chapter 6 was the receipt for the nine months before I wrote this book. This chapter is the receipt for the year after — the year I ran the question on the biggest thing I had ever tried. It's still a work in progress.
The Developer I Almost Hired
I had an idea for software that reads instrument data the way a chemist does. Not just drawing peaks — understanding them. I'm a chemist, not a programmer. So I did what you're supposed to do. I found a software developer, got a quote and a scope of work, and before I signed anything I sent it to Marty.
I met Marty at the Gulf Coast Conference in 2025. He had given a presentation on AI, and he had been following my articles on LinkedIn. My signal had reached him before I ever thought of it as a signal.
Marty read the quote and said, "Michael, you don't need a developer. You can do this on your own."
Then he introduced me to Claude.
The question came right back around. Can I do this right now, with what I already have and who I already am? I had thirty-two years of knowing what good data looks like. I had a laptop. Now I had an AI that could write code as fast as I could describe what I wanted. The old me would have paid the developer and waited. That's Inertia-R.
I said yes.
One Sunday
On a Sunday morning in February 2026, I sat down with a data viewer that wouldn't load a single chromatogram. By lunch, everything loaded. By that night I typed a sentence I didn't expect to type that soon: "I think we may have the most advanced LUMA detector processing strategy available."
That wasn't the finish line. It was the start. Within a few sessions we had a proof of concept — the moment I knew the idea was real. Then we started inventing: flattening drifting baselines without destroying the peaks, pulling hidden peaks out from under bigger ones.
No developer. No budget. No permission.
The Impossible Library
Every detector has the same problem. It is only as smart as its library — the reference spectra that tell you what you're looking at. The LUMA sees twelve bands of vacuum ultraviolet light, and there was no big library built for those twelve bands. Building one the normal way means buying and measuring compounds one at a time, for years.
It sounded impossible.
You know my answer by now. I'm not smart enough to know that.
So I stated the problem differently. The physics of how a molecule absorbs light doesn't change because the detector is different. If you understand what each of the twelve bands sees, you can translate what is already known into the language the LUMA speaks.
By May 2026 the LUMA had a predicted library of 12,108 compounds, with 56 measured gold-standard spectra to keep it honest. That same month, on a refinery customer's calibration standard, the software identified all 25 compounds. One fix to how it handles the baseline took the average error from 7.4% to 0.9%.
Built with what I already had: data I'd collected, a detector I believed in, and one question.
And working on the LUMA taught me more than just LUMA.
MAI-Alchemy
That work became MAI-Alchemy, from Medrado Analytical Innovations: software that cleans the signal, finds the peaks, identifies the compounds and measures them. It is still a work in progress.
Back on the Stage
In 2024 I stood up at the Gulf Coast Conference with a method a colleague had called impossible, and our team walked away with Presentation of the Year.
This October I'm going back. Same conference. Same chemist. Different current. This time I'm not showing one method. I'm showing what one analytical chemist can do with AI when he stops waiting for permission — and at the end, I get to introduce the room to a little Inertia-M.
I don't know how the room will react. I know the question works.
By the time you read this, the conference may already be behind me. I'll let you know how it turned out — this chapter gets updated after the conference. That's the beauty of an interactive book.
Yes. These are the receipts so far.
Find the thing you were about to pay someone for, wait for, or ask permission to do. Run it through the question before you sign anything.
When you have a receipt of your own — the day the question said yes and it worked — share it in The Movement, under Fastest Inertia-M. Someone else's momentum might start with yours.
Momentum Is Dynamic
Chapter 10 was what I built. This chapter is what it cost — and what I learned paying it.
Why Partners Move Slowly
Here's what I learned about big ideas. They need big moves, and big companies are rarely in a position to make big moves. Every partner already has an agenda to keep. They answer to shareholders. They have business plans to stay on, milestones to hit, employees to pay. An idea from the outside still has to fit inside all of that.
Getting goals to align is not easy. That's Inertia-R — resistance. Nobody's fault. Every agenda pushes back a little, and together it adds up.
One lesson I learned the hard way: before any collaboration starts, make sure everyone says out loud what they expect from it. In a different collaboration, I put my expectations in writing and sent them to everyone. The others never shared theirs. Every party had its own agenda, and it cooled. Stating yours isn't enough — ask for theirs, in writing, before the work starts. We would have gotten further if we had all agreed on expectations.
The Solution Has to Wait for the Problem
The other thing I learned: having the solution isn't enough. Timing is everything.
Remember my supervisor in Chapter 2? "Mike, no matter what we do, you always have a better way." When I was younger I said the fix out loud the moment I saw it, and it never went over well. People heard negativity. I was only looking at how something could be better. So I learned to wait. Many times I knew exactly what the problem was and stayed silent, because the team wasn't ready to hear it yet.
Everybody works a problem their own way. Push on that way and it pushes back — the stronger the belief, the greater the resistance. That's Inertia-R. But the problem is bigger than the resistance. Struggling with it forces people to drop the patterns that don't serve them, and once enough of those are gone, they're open. Present the solution before then and it falls flat. Present it after, and you're the problem solver.
Partners work the same way. Every company has a plan it's executing. Unless they're at the step where they need your solution, they don't need your solution — no matter how good it is.
Until then, it sits on a shelf. So keep it ready. Do the part you can do today. When the door opens, you're already moving. The obstacle is the way.
What Happened to the Podcast
In Chapter 5 I told you the podcast launched the same week. That was true. How hard could it be to start a podcast? Not hard. Keeping it going — that's a different problem.
It's a matter of resources, and time is the most precious one. I have a day job. That's the constraint everything else is limited by. Then there's the learning curve — how do you get the sound right, the lighting? How do you prioritize all of it after a full shift?
Everyone loved the idea and supported it. My plan was to bring on a partner who would help me keep it a priority — if I'm working with someone, I'm less likely to let it slide. But they had a day job too, and their own priorities. Getting the timing to work proved difficult. And a passion project done for free has to make way for what pays.
We had fun, and I still want to do it. But I set it down, because another path opened up: MAI-Alchemy. No partners required — just a Claude subscription and a willingness to trade sleep for progress.
Nothing Is Wasted If You Learn
From the outside looking in, it can look like a lot of Inertia-M spent on things that didn't last. A podcast on pause. Ideas on a shelf. That's not wrong. But momentum is only wasted if you don't learn — and learning is what builds your resources. I know what works and what doesn't. Every one of those projects is on my resource map now.
Inertia-M is dynamic. To use it well, you let it change direction when the current changes. Always aim high. You might come up short — but anything higher than where you started is a win, especially if you learn.
Your Own Momentum
That's why leaning into your own Inertia-M matters so much. Other people's time, priorities and paychecks will always shape what they can give you. Lean on theirs, and your momentum moves at their speed. Lean into yours, and it moves at your own.
So the quickest path to progress isn't waiting for someone else to align. It's your own Inertia-M. Who you already are. What you already have, or can get.
Anyone can open a Claude account today. That isn't the advantage. You still have to bring the idea, the passion and the momentum, because the path still takes work and dedication. The difference is where you point that work. Point it at something you're already good at, and you stop chasing other people's agendas. You become the thing others want to align with.
Momentum is dynamic, and time is the resource everything else is limited by. Spend it on purpose.
Building the Boat
Chapter 11 was about other people's time. This one is about mine.
Three Hours of Sleep
For several months I lived on about three hours of sleep. I know how that sounds. Those close to me probably thought I was going crazy. But here's the thing about Inertia-M: as exhausting as it sounds, I was invigorated — energized by a natural high, inspired. I could see the end, and all I wanted to do was get there.
The Boat and the Engine
Those months weren't just long nights. They were a foundation. All through this book I've told you that you get somewhere faster when you ride the current instead of fighting it. But you need something to ride it in. Those months, I was building a boat. Once the boat was built, I started building the engine.
MAI-Alchemy is the product of something I'm quite proud of. You hear that I use AI, and you probably think, well, anyone can use AI. But here's the thing: AI drifts, and it drifts hard. That was a problem I had to solve. So I built the solution — NeoMAItrix, my own version of AI. That's a story I'll share at some point. For now, know this: Neo is what made it possible for Claude to help me build my vision. The architecture NeoMAItrix is built on is unlike anything I'm aware of. I've asked Grok and Claude to compare Neo to other products that are live, and so far they haven't found one.
I didn't just build a boat. I built a speedboat. I can build complex software quickly now — and my presentation at the Gulf Coast Conference is where I start to share the story.
From Noise to Signal
I can see the potential in what I'm building. Not everyone can see their own potential. But when you start to realize yours, other people can see it too. You go from noise to signal — and the signal attracts the people who can help you realize the rest. That's how I met Marty.
That's what the one question unlocks. Lean into your Inertia-M, and you will surprise yourself.
The Chapter That Doesn't End
You may have noticed this chapter has no ending. That's on purpose. My Inertia-M is still in motion — and an object in motion stays in motion.
Here's the part of Newton I didn't spell out in Chapter 1. When something moving meets something standing still, it doesn't just keep going. It passes some of its momentum on. Nothing is lost. It's transferred.
That's what Marty did for me. One sentence — "you don't need a developer, you can do this on your own" — and something that had been standing still started to move. An object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Sometimes that force is a person who sees your potential before you do.
Your Inertia-M works the same way on the people around you. Lean into it, and they see it. Some of them start moving too.
Momentum isn't just how much you have. It's which way it points. In physics, momentum is a vector — and when two vectors point the same way, they add.
We may not all be headed to the same destination. But if we're going the same direction, even for a little while, we can help each other gain momentum. Cyclists know this. Riders with different finish lines still take turns at the front, because the whole group goes faster together.
That's what this book is for now. It grows in content — and in momentum. Every reader who puts it to work, shares a win in The Movement, or passes it to someone heading their way adds a little Inertia-M to everyone moving in the same direction.
So this chapter doesn't end here. It ends with you.
Your move. How hard could it be?
— Medrado Michael Leal, October 2026
You get there faster riding the current. What are you building to ride it in?
Updates
The second edition is locked. When I have more to tell, it arrives here — dated, and marked inside the chapter it belongs to, so you can see exactly what's new.
- October 2026 — Same Direction (Chapter 12). Momentum is a vector: we may not share a destination, but going the same direction, even for a little while, we can help each other gain momentum. Read it
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The Movement
Readers moving in the same direction.
This book asked you to find your north, face your resistance, and ride your momentum. Now share it — because one person's north might be another person's permission to start.
The Movement is for momentum. Share your north, the resistance you finally stopped fighting, and the wins that came when you said yes — and when you reply to someone, add momentum to theirs. Keep it Inertia-M. There's no shortage of Inertia-R out there.
Keep it real, keep it Inertia-M, keep flying.