Anggriawan Sugianto

There is a moment that happens around kilometer 80 of an ultra trail race. Your legs feel like concrete. Your mind is screaming. The pain isn't sharp anymore; it is dull and omnipresent, as if your body is slowly surrendering to physics.

I hit that moment three times in 2025.

Three ultra trails in eight weeks. Three 100-kilometer races. Three times I convinced myself that my legs would keep moving when my brain insisted they were finished. Three times I discovered something I did not know about myself.

But here is what surprised me most: it was not the ultramarathon that changed me. It was the realization that everything I had learned as a business technologist, including every framework, system, and principle I built while running my company, applied directly to running 100 kilometers through mountains.

This is my origin story in running.

BDG Ultra 2025 - My first 100K

The Desk-to-Trail Transition

My name is Anggriawan Sugianto. I am the Chief of Suitmedia, a digital consulting firm in Jakarta with over 200 employees. I spend most days in optimizing workflows, analyzing spreadsheets, and making decisions that affect growth.

I also run 100-kilometer races through mountains.

These two facts may seem disconnected, but they are not. They represent the same skill applied to different domains.

In 2023, I started running seriously. I do not mean the casual 10-kilometer runs often seen on social media. I mean distance: the kind that takes hours, demands total consistency, and reveals your true character.

At first, it was for health. Then it became a test. Finally, it became an obsession with understanding how systems work.

Most people who run endurance distances follow one of two paths:

1. Outsourced: Hire a coach, pay the fee, and follow the plan.
2. Amateur: Download a generic plan from the internet and hope for the best.

Both approaches assume you need an external structure or that you cannot think for yourself. I rejected both.

As a strategist, I have spent a decade learning to think in systems. I build products using frameworks. I make hiring decisions using matrices. I structure companies around principles rather than hunches.

It seemed illogical to abandon that mindset the moment I wanted to run 100 kilometers.

In late 2024, I decided to become my own coach.

This was not due to arrogance, but because I had a unique advantage: the ability to reverse-engineer the system. I had the time to test hypotheses and document what actually works.

By 2025, I had proven the system works.

Di tengah keriuhan transportasi publik kita, entah itu di gerbong KRL yang padat atau di sela antrean ojek daring, ada sebuah pemandangan baru yang seragam: layar gawai yang digenggam vertikal dengan volume suara yang tipis namun dramatis. Masyarakat kita sedang dijangkiti demam mikro-drama atau "dracin pendek". Hanya dalam durasi satu hingga tiga menit per episode, drama ini mampu menyihir jutaan orang, mulai dari pekerja sektor informal hingga eksekutif yang mencari pelarian sejenak dari keletihan mental (decision fatigue).

Sebagai praktisi Customer Experience (CX), saya melihat keberhasilan mikro-drama bukan terletak pada kemegahan sinematografinya, melainkan pada ketangkasannya membedah anatomi psikologi dan perilaku manusia modern di era seluler.

Ilustrasi: Menonton Mikro-Drama di dalam MRT

Matinya “Format Menengah”

Secara historis, kita terbiasa dengan durasi standar 22 menit untuk sitkom atau satu jam untuk drama televisi. Namun, hari ini kita menyaksikan apa yang saya sebut sebagai The Death of the Middle-Form. Konsumsi konten kini bergerak ke dua titik ekstrem: format sangat panjang seperti podcast berjam-jam, atau format ultra-pendek.

Mikro-drama mengeksploitasi interstitial time, celah waktu sempit di sela fragmentasi kesibukan kita. Ia menawarkan frictionless consumption. Tanpa perlu komitmen waktu besar, ia hadir mengubah waktu tunggu yang "mati" menjadi jendela hiburan yang intens. Di sinilah letak kemenangannya: ia tidak meminta waktu kita, ia mencurinya di sela-sela kesibukan.

Pembajakan Vertikal dan Efek Zeigarnik

Platform mikro-drama melakukan vertical hijack. Dengan format vertikal yang memanjakan ergonomi satu tangan manusia, teknologi ini menyesuaikan diri dengan ritme fisik kita, bukan sebaliknya. Ini bukan sekadar soal rasio aspek layar, melainkan desain yang sadar konteks (context-aware design).

Daya pikatnya kian adiktif berkat penerapan gamified cliffhangers. Setiap episode dirancang menggunakan Zeigarnik Effect, tendensi psikologis di mana otak manusia cenderung merasa terganggu dan terus teringat pada hal yang belum selesai. Rasa penasaran ini dikomodifikasi sedemikian rupa, sehingga pengguna secara bawah sadar akan sulit melepaskan layar sebelum cerita tuntas, meski harus membayar per episode.

Secara kultural, mikro-drama di Indonesia sukses karena menyentuh "DNA" lokal. Tema seperti balas dendam menantu yang terzalimi atau CEO yang menyamar adalah topik universal yang menawarkan gratifikasi instan melalui narasi “justice porn”, kepuasan melihat keangkuhan ditundukkan oleh kebenaran. Strategi ini lalu diperkuat dengan algorithmic funneling yang presisi di Facebook, Instagram, atau TikTok, menjerat audiens masuk ke dalam corong konversi (funnel) menuju aplikasi utama.

There is a specific kind of silence that only exists at 3:00 AM on a muddy trail in the middle of a race. Your headlamp is failing, your quads feel like they've been tenderized by a mallet, and your brain is screaming—rationally, logically—that you should stop.

Over the years, I've realized that the "algorithms" I learned in ITB and the "frameworks" I mastered in KAIST MBA are exactly what keep me moving on the trail. And conversely, the "grit" of the trail is what allows me to lead Suitmedia through the volatility of the Indonesian tech landscape.

Success is isomorphic. The same principles that scale a company win a mountain race. These are the mental models I live by, grouped into the pillars that define my world.

BTS Ultra 2025

I. How I Think

These are the foundational models for clarity. If my internal "Map" is wrong, no amount of speed will get me to the right destination.

1. The Logic of Truth

Before you can solve a problem, you have to see it clearly.

• First Principles Thinking: Strip a problem to the core truths. Don't reason by analogy; build your own logic from the ground up.
• Occam's Razor: When faced with two competing theories, the simplest one is usually the truth. Avoid over-engineering your life.
• Map vs. Territory: Your mental models, plans, and spreadsheets are just "maps." Never confuse the abstraction with the messy reality of the "territory."
• Circle of Competence: Be brutally honest about what you know and where your expertise ends. Play only in games where you have an edge.

2. Strategic Decision Making

Choosing the path when the fog of war (or mountain mist) is thick.

• Inversion: Instead of asking how to succeed, ask "How could I spectacularly fail?" Then, build systems to avoid those specific pitfalls.
• Probabilistic Thinking: Life is a game of odds, not certainties. Focus on making high-probability bets rather than chasing sure things.
• Regret Minimization: When at a crossroads, choose the path that your 80-year-old self would be most proud of.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Having the courage to walk away from a bad project or relationship, regardless of how much time or money you've already invested.

3. The Physics of Growth

How to ensure effort results in exponential progress.

• The Pareto Principle: Identify the 20% of inputs—habits, clients, or training—that produce 80% of your results. Ruthlessly cut the rest.
• Compounding: The most powerful force in the universe. Tiny, 1% gains repeated over a decade create exponential wealth, wisdom, and fitness.
• Velocity vs. Speed: Speed is how fast you move; Velocity is speed plus direction. It's better to crawl toward the right goal than sprint toward the wrong one.
• Theory of Constraints: Every system has one primary bottleneck. Improving anything else is an exercise in futility. Find the bottleneck; widen it.

4. Human & Social Dynamics

Navigating the "Human API" in leadership and life.

• Incentives: Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome. If you want to change behavior, change the reward structure.
• Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by neglect or a simple mistake. It saves a lot of unnecessary anger.
• Social Proof: We are biologically wired to mimic others. Use this awareness to choose mentors wisely and avoid groupthink traps.
• Pygmalion Effect: People generally live up to or down to the expectations we set for them. Lead with high belief in your team.

5. Systemic Resilience

Building a person in me that gets stronger under pressure.

• Antifragility: Designing your life so that you don't just survive the storm—you actually get stronger because of them.
• Feedback Loops: The shorter the gap between an action and its feedback, the faster you can iterate and improve.
• Margin of Safety: Always leave a buffer—in your schedule, your bank account, and your heart rate—for the unknown unknowns.
• The Power of Narrative: The stories we tell ourselves about our failures determine whether they become traumas or fuel for growth.