Big Skills
Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, says he doesn’t have any extraordinary skills. He’s a pretty good artist. He’s kind of funny, an OK writer, and decent at business.
But multiply those mediocre skills together and you get one of the most successful cartoonists of all time.
A lot of things work like that. A couple ordinary things you don’t notice on their own create something spectacular when they mix together at the right time.
One of the big leaps forward for humanity is when we mixed copper, which is soft, with tin, which is like paper, and created bronze, which is hard and made great tools and weapons. It was like two plus one equals ten.
Same with the weather. A little cool air from the north is no big deal. A little warm breeze from the south is pleasant. But when they mix together over Missouri you get a tornado.
Same with people. It’s tempting to want to find the one big skill that will set you apart. But most incredible things come from compounding, and compounding isn’t intuitive because the incremental inputs are never exciting on their own.
A few little things that are easy to ignore yet work wonders when combined together:
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Curiosity across disciplines, most of which are outside your profession.
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A well-calibrated sense of your future regret.
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The ability to endure risk vs. assuming you can avoid it.
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Respecting luck as much as you respect risk.
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The willingness to adapt views you wish were permanent.
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Low susceptibility to FOMO.
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A sensitive bullshit detector.
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Valuing your independence over someone else’s priorities.
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Respecting history more than forecasts.
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Respecting the difference between rosy optimism and periods of chaos that trend upward.
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Quitting while you’re ahead before you’ve exhausted or outgrown what made you successful.
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Outperforming by merely “doing the average thing when everyone else around you is losing their mind.”
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Thinking in probabilities vs. certainties, including the idea that a good decision can result in a bad outcome and vice versa.
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Acknowledging that some things are unknowable and not fooling yourself into thinking you can figure them out.
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Identifying what game you’re playing and not being persuaded by people playing different games.
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Expecting the ridiculous and absurd vs. assuming the world is always governed by rational decisions.
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Accepting some inefficiency and hassle without losing your cool.
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Knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.
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Deserving the good reputation you have.
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Getting along with people you disagree with.
None of these are too exciting, but maybe that’s the point: Most things that look like superpowers are just a bunch of ordinary skills mixed together at the right time.