There is one super power that is rarely mentioned: having been successful enough that only superficial knowledge and time investment is needed to leverage a workforce.
If you are the guy that spends 40hours per week diving deep into one specific topic because your business depends on having someone being an expert on something to that degree, you won't be able to lead a this well rounded life.
If you are in a Founder position and feel this statement hurts, extract yourself atleast a day a week from being an employee of your business and think bigger.
Box #2 - Invest: "For example, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to invest in building a reputation in a particular area so that I’m seen as an expert. "
There are plenty of us who have built products which then got sold to companies who do not match our ideals. The flaws of our acquirers do not diminish our work -- we accomplished something by building a product that was interesting and successful enough that someone wanted to buy it in the first place.
Seriously though, I can contribute one idea, which is to use radar or spider charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_chart). I used to do this kind of thing, tracking 5-10 categories and trying to keep them all balanced. For feedback I would periodically assess how things were going in each category and give it a numeric rating, then plot these on a radar chart. The goal was for the resulting shape to be as close to round as possible, i.e. literally well-rounded. If the chart is bulging out in a particular area you've been working hard in, and lagging in another, you could theoretically take that as the signal to switch focus to the area that needs work. Also if you saved the charts over time you could compare the chart from let's say January 2019, against the one from January 2018.
For me personally it ended up making itself obsolete because it made me notice in a roundabout way that I am, and want to be, one of those people who works better at one thing at a time (or at least, fewer is better). But it did force me to do some things that were beneficial that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise.
Really helpful addition to the link, thanks for sharing! Even though I was aware of radar charts, I hadn't linked them for personal use yet and I've been thinking about how I can look a few different measures in my personal life. I was coming up empty. Sounds like it would complement interviewee's system perfectly.
I’ve had a feeling for a while that getting to the 80th percentile in everything I do should be my goal.
Imagine a person that is the 80th percentile in distance running, powerlifting, swimming, basketball and Nordic skiing.
That person would be the best all-around athlete you’d likely meet.
The opportunity cost of getting beyond the 80th percentile is so high you should spend that time getting some other skill up to the 80th.
That may feel like being a master of none but the trade off is that you’re pretty decent at everything.
I know enough about surfing, politics, world travel, programming and music(among other things) that I can hold a conversation with anyone even though I’m not the best at any of them.
This has felt like a huge advantage over people who focus on one thing at the expense of being more well rounded.
80th percentile in what population? If you've been nordic skiing, you are very likely in the 99th percentile of nordic skiing ability out of everyone in the world.
Great question...my response wasn’t super clear on that. I’d say 80th percentile of people who do a given activity. That’s, of course, pretty vague but this is just a guiding principle for me.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Everyone pursues different strategies to achieve different things. I'd praise you for choosing a deliberate strategy if I was your friend. I feel like more people should be deliberate with their time and energy, including myself.
One issue is that skills don't last forever. You lose them if you don't practice (and I'm not even talking about body decline). And you can't practice them all at once due to time limitation.
Besides, some skills decline slower than others. For instance, "technical" sports, such as skiing, boxing or swimming, seem to be more engrained in the body. Whereas running abilities decline pretty fast. I usually favour technical sports for that reason.
> NoteToSelf Mail is a little app that I have on my home screen that lets me really easily send an email
Oh snap, I haven't thought the AppStore is such saturated platform, where there is specific app to send an email to myself - why FastMail or Spark won't be enough to do that? Isn't just two/one less click optimization app?
Theres a little more philosophies to go by. I wouldnt invest too much time to incorporate something thats just superficially augmenting a layer of organization. But yes, something to meditate on if it werent used in an inflationary manner in other instances.
I’ve learned that unless I’m learning new skills my mind creates issues for me.
Learning to dance, play an instrument, draw, sing — with no desire to become close to exceptional in any of them has benefited me in ways I couldn’t imagine.
Just 1% better every month (although I don’t track it) in a relaxed manner, over time, without investing too much time (5 minutes every few days) is enough to make life fun. In the end all these various “unrelated” skills tend to link up.
YMMV
I went to “elite” schools and anything less than 100% was deemed failure. So wrong.
37 comments
[ 23.5 ms ] story [ 204 ms ] threadIf you are the guy that spends 40hours per week diving deep into one specific topic because your business depends on having someone being an expert on something to that degree, you won't be able to lead a this well rounded life.
If you are in a Founder position and feel this statement hurts, extract yourself atleast a day a week from being an employee of your business and think bigger.
Interesting to get a peek at what goes on behind the curtain.
I’m wondering if it’s a good time to praise WeWork ties. On Managed by Q’s website (https://www.managedbyq.com/):
> We Manage, We run, We design, We staff
These almost sound like a pre-emptive positive corporate bankruptcy tale in the making.
Seriously though, I can contribute one idea, which is to use radar or spider charts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_chart). I used to do this kind of thing, tracking 5-10 categories and trying to keep them all balanced. For feedback I would periodically assess how things were going in each category and give it a numeric rating, then plot these on a radar chart. The goal was for the resulting shape to be as close to round as possible, i.e. literally well-rounded. If the chart is bulging out in a particular area you've been working hard in, and lagging in another, you could theoretically take that as the signal to switch focus to the area that needs work. Also if you saved the charts over time you could compare the chart from let's say January 2019, against the one from January 2018.
For me personally it ended up making itself obsolete because it made me notice in a roundabout way that I am, and want to be, one of those people who works better at one thing at a time (or at least, fewer is better). But it did force me to do some things that were beneficial that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise.
Imagine a person that is the 80th percentile in distance running, powerlifting, swimming, basketball and Nordic skiing.
That person would be the best all-around athlete you’d likely meet.
The opportunity cost of getting beyond the 80th percentile is so high you should spend that time getting some other skill up to the 80th.
That may feel like being a master of none but the trade off is that you’re pretty decent at everything.
I know enough about surfing, politics, world travel, programming and music(among other things) that I can hold a conversation with anyone even though I’m not the best at any of them.
This has felt like a huge advantage over people who focus on one thing at the expense of being more well rounded.
Being in the top 10% of them puts you into global fractional percentages.
If it's not soccer, having done it likely puts you in fraction-of-fraction land.
Besides, some skills decline slower than others. For instance, "technical" sports, such as skiing, boxing or swimming, seem to be more engrained in the body. Whereas running abilities decline pretty fast. I usually favour technical sports for that reason.
Boy, was I wrong.
Oh snap, I haven't thought the AppStore is such saturated platform, where there is specific app to send an email to myself - why FastMail or Spark won't be enough to do that? Isn't just two/one less click optimization app?
Step 2: Sit in your chair. Your cash reserves now give you access to opportunities that poor people don't have.
Not a very actionable plan for the rest of us.