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Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

dariusforoux.com

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Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#51

Post by carlmr »

bertjk wrote: post #50
carlmr wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to say the same, no attribution at all, and dubious claims about how your success will increase. I believe the talent stack is a valid principle, but it doesn't just double your success if you go to toastmasters and learn how to present and at your job you have neither a commission nor any customer contact.

He does attribute, right in the second line of the whole piece: >> The more skills we have, the more odds we have to become successful. I like how Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, explains the concept of Skill Stacking ...

My bad, skimmed it very quickly and didn't see that.

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#52

Post by jpatokal »

nopinsight wrote: post #18
syndacks wrote: post #8

When I rode my bicycle across the USA from LA to NYC I met a dude named Ryan through WarmShowers. Over pizza and beers at a local joint in Tempe, AZ, Ryan told me about this blog called _Semi-Rad_ - "you don't need to be a rockstar in something, you just need to be semi-rad. Semi-rad people have the most fun, they achieve the most, they experience the spice of life. They're not so caught up in perfection, but they st…

In several fields, people at the top 1% of skill level earn many times those at top 10% and the mediocre ones may barely get by. This phenomenon is spreading because better technologies enable top performers to serve more people. (See: the Superstar effect for the most extreme examples. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Superstar_Effect ) How would the average workers or even ‘semi-rads’ in generally less lucrative…

Well, consider being a chef. Does it make sense to shoot to be the next cooking superstar Rene Redzepi or Ferran Adria and achieve success on culinary skills alone? Or instead be a competent cook who also knows how to balance a checkbook, hire & manage staff, design an appealing menu, negotiate with suppliers, do marketing and thus be able to survive and make money in the cut-throat restaurant biz where something like 9 out of 10 new entrants fail within a year?

(Mind you, I'm pretty sure Redzepi and Adria also know how to balance a checkbook...)

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#53

Post by Dowwie »

syndacks wrote: post #8

When I rode my bicycle across the USA from LA to NYC I met a dude named Ryan through WarmShowers. Over pizza and beers at a local joint in Tempe, AZ, Ryan told me about this blog called _Semi-Rad_ - "you don't need to be a rockstar in something, you just need to be semi-rad. Semi-rad people have the most fun, they achieve the most, they experience the spice of life. They're not so caught up in perfection, but they st…

Great is the enemy of good-enough. Just getting to good enough (proficient) is an accomplishment. The world's most interesting person has many interesting proficiencies. :)

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#54

Post by avip »

_kxbd wrote: post #19

I don't find these sorts of articles valuable. The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying. If we remove all the filler in this article (more or less the entire article), it amounts to "be okay at multiple things rather than trying to be good a…

But you can't publish a medium post which reads pay attention to what you're doing. You have to crappify it.

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#55

Post by yesenadam »

csomar wrote: post #47
nopinsight wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes that the pension system there will be able to sustain itself in a few decades hence despite low birth rates and limited immigration. Also, most people in developing countries, i.e. most people in the world, do not have that option.

Yes. Many people cites Europe/France as a good example of retirement/healthcare and forget that the pension system is a Scam. They are basically paying current retirees with what the current employees are paying. A state-lead Ponzi Scheme. The system will eventually implode.

So which countries would you 'cite as a good example of retirement/healthcare'?

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#56

Post by taffronaut »

I disagree with this. In my experience as a generalist, most hirers are like customers in a tool store. They're looking for a tool to do a thing. Trying to interest them in a Swiss Army Knife is a waste of time. If they're shopping for skill x, they'll look for the best specialist. Hirers who are metaphorically stocking up for an expedition in the unknown, or who will admit to themselves that they are already lost in the wilderness, are going to be interested in generalists. That's a much smaller (but more interesting) market.

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#58

Post by tirumaraiselvan »

_kxbd wrote: post #19

I don't find these sorts of articles valuable. The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying. If we remove all the filler in this article (more or less the entire article), it amounts to "be okay at multiple things rather than trying to be good a…

>The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying

In technical terms, what you are suggesting is that the article is making a claim which is unfalsifiable. But actually it is falsifiable. All you have to do is find a person who has diverse skills but is unsuccessful.

Re: Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy to Achieve Career Success

#59

Post by arendtio »

> When it comes to skills, quantity often beats quality.

While I agree with a lot of the author's statements, that part is wrong in my opinion. I think it is more along the lines of:

- every skill has a value

- some skills complement each other

The value probably rises exponentially with the progress (similar to how much effort you have to invest, to reach a skill level). So having many shallow skills is probably not as valuable as being very good at one thing. Likewise being more skilled than the average (median) person on multiple skills can result in a high value.

In essence: If you want to reach a good value/effort ratio spend your time on a skill set and not just on a single skill.

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