Super Adaptability: How to Transcend in an Age of Overwhelm

When Max Mckeown's latest book arrived in the post, my life was throwing just about everything at me at once. So, the timing for receiving Super Adaptability - How to Transcend in an Age of Overwhelm, couldn’t have been more appropriate or more necessary. This gave me every possible motivation to engage fully with the promise of what it had to offer.

I decided to turn my life into a living case study, a guided experiment of sorts. What follows is both a review and a testament to whether this substantial tome (and weighing in at over a kilogram, it truly is substantial) can deliver on its promise.

As introductory background on the methodology, Super Adaptability draws from neuroscience, psychology and cultural evolution to develop a practical framework for human adaptability. The theoretical foundation builds on established science and concepts like neuroplasticity, metacognition, and cultural transmission. It’s noted by the author who also explores adaptive intelligence and the systems and minds that shape it that “the specific synthesis, structure and terminology (including ‘superadaptability’ and ‘metaplasticity’ as metacognition accessing neural plasticity’) are all original contributions.”

A Different Kind of Reading Experience

At the end of this 686-page book, Mckeown writes: “Hello - I like to read a book from the back. Then I flip forward. Then back. I get stuck in, find out where it’s going, to see if I want to start where it began. If that’s you, maybe we’re talking to each other before we even started. But of course you have. We never really get to the start.”

As someone who proofreads articles both forwards and backwards, this struck a chord. I find that starting from an endpoint and working back can help to ensure that a piece flows well. So yes, I read that message at the end before I even started!

Mckeown’s cryptic observation - “we never really get to the start” also suggests something profound about adaptability itself: is there perhaps no true beginning point? Are we perhaps always in motion, already adapting, already mid-loop. The idea that we need to start from page one is itself a pattern worth questioning.

I didn’t find it necessary to read this lengthy book cover to cover. I worked through it intuitively in my own random, abstract way, seeking out the pages that were directly relevant in real - time. I used coloured marker pens to highlight points that resonated, so I could then go away and ponder them, reflect, and integrate that learning before continuing.

The Core Philosophy: Looping

In the opening section, “Why This Book Exists”, Mckeown cuts straight to what matters: how to overcome overwhelm. “The world is changing faster than most people - and most systems - can handle.” Who doesn’t identify with that?

What caught my attention immediately was the concept of “looping better” and the idea that at the core of real transformation are meta - habits or patterns that shape how you build, break, and reroute other patterns. These aren’t just things you do; they’re how you adapt to what’s happening.

The RUN loop framework is introduced: Recognize, Understand, and take Necessary Action. Simple on the surface, but profound in practice. As Mckeown writes: “When you can Recognise, Understand, and take Necessary Action - deliberately, repeatedly and under pressure - you stop being trapped. You start transcending.”

The use of the word “transcend” got me thinking. It’s usually reserved for committed spiritual journeys, complete with gurus. But here, Mckeown offers something different: a journey of enlightenment driven 100% by you, the reader. It’s your flow, your pauses, your discovery of patterns. No third party required.

From Theory to Action

In the Prologue it’s noted that the book will teach us: “How to act inside the chokehold - before the system collapses. How to create space to breathe, to think, to move. How to survive the choke - and sometimes, reverse it.”

That’s exactly what I needed to do with my life: reverse the choke that had set in like a long winter and re - gain a positive sense of perspective. I was also frozen, traumatised.

My orange highlighter (later replaced by pink when the dog chewed it, or perhaps when I moved up a gear) marked the path. On page 22, I landed on a key piece of the puzzle: “Necessary Action is what closes the loop. It’s what turns awareness into momentum.”

The three moves that make up the RUN loop - ‘Recognize, Understand, and take Necessary Action’ - are described as one pattern, so I set about better understanding my own patterning and drivers.

Fast forward to page 189, and I’m learning that for superadaptive people, “sometimes it’s a change of tone, a shift in footing, a question no one expected. It’s not about momentum - it’s about position. Because the right move doesn’t just act. It repositions you.”

I scrawled a note to myself in blue ink: “do not make out of fear bad short-term decisions”. I don’t specifically remember why I wrote that at the time, but that’s one of the brilliant things about this book - you can return multiple times and new connections and meanings will emerge.

Behind the Framework

What also makes it unique isn’t just the 10 Rules it presents for upgrading your essential internal loops. It’s the philosophical depth underneath everything. Mckeown writes with the thoughtfulness of Greek philosophers who had the time to contemplate and think deeply.

It also uses engaging examples throughout. I found that this really helped to ground the concepts and see things from multiple lenses of perspective. From Frida Kahlo and Leonardo da Vinci to Simone Biles and Chen-Gai Tsai.

On page 453, (courtesy of Chen-Gai Tsai) in a section on ‘Groove In The Brain’, I highlighted: “The human brain doesn’t wait to react. It loops. It listens ahead. Whether you’re dancing, speaking, driving, or preparing to respond in an argument, your nervous system isn’t just processing input - it’s pre-aligning. Groove, in this sense isn’t musical. It’s cognitive. It’s the felt sense of ‘this is the right moment’ before the move is made.”

This gave me cause for hope. I could see there was a finish line - just a question of re-claiming my nervous system.

Understanding Rhythm and Counter-Loops

By the time I reached “The Rhythm in Full” section, I understood that superadaptors learn a different sequence. It’s a rhythm of preparation, build - up, strike, adjustment, and consolidation. And crucially, as page 471 reminded me later (now with my green highlighter...): “Superadapters know that rhythm doesn’t mean always faster. Sometimes rhythm means pause, hold, breathe. Reset the beat. They know that speed without discernment is just drift.”

The section on Counter-Loops was equally vital: “Some loops go wrong. Not because you’re careless. But because you’re in motion - and motion doesn’t always mean you’re moving in the right direction.” It continues, “Superadaptors don’t invent a whole new system every time something slips. They’re - run the loop using the same three habits - Spot the Fault, Swap the Part, Bake it In - but apply them more wisely, more lightly, more precisely.”

The Results: A Personal Testament

Even the hand drawn glyphs have a role to play in supporting the reader’s journey. I felt as if they were cheering me on from the sidelines. I messaged the author to ask about their significance and he said: “all designed to feel like and transmit the patterns being explored…. They serve as cognitive anchors, distilling recursive insight into shape. Each one is a fractal compression of a pattern the text unfolds.”

My personal goal for the book was to see if it could help me to move from paralysis into abundance. On that note, I’m reminded of a sentence in the section From Trapped to Transcended. “In Japanese there’s a phrase (ichiryuu manbai) which means one grain, ten thousandfold. From a single seed, a great harvest. One loop - run well - can change everything.”

And it did. One of the gifts of learning how to be superadatable is that everything can change. That’s what happened to me. Out of the blue, an opportunity has landed to work on an exciting new project with huge potential. Plus, I’m in a good space to help lead it now.

The back cover concludes with: “This is an operating system for transformation. You won’t just read this book. You’ll run it. You’ll grow with it. You’ll live the loop” I did, and it worked.

Perhaps that’s the blessing in disguise of these challenging times. If we dig deeper and truly discover ourselves, things that we never even imagined possible can manifest.

If you believe that adapting is essential right now, that superadaptability is possible, and that individually and collectively we have what it takes to come out on top, this is a book you’ll want on your shelf. You’ll return to it again and again.

Thank you, Max.