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How to Become the Best in the World at Something

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Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#71

Post by im3w1l »

agota wrote: post #27
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #17

I think there is yet another path: hyper specialization in one ludicrously specific niche no one else cares about or has good reason for not getting into. If you spend 10k hours perfecting something no one else even thought of trying, chances are you'll be the best in the world at it.

Can you give a specific example, though? Because generally, no competition means no demand, so while it might be satisfying to be best in the world at something, an obscure skill might not translate into financial success.

If the field you're in has a million people, then split the field into a million pieces (actually this is probably too conservative, maybe go with 100k or even 10k) and pick one to become best at.

Since the field is currently successfully employing a million people there must be that many profitable pieces if you slice it correctly.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#73

Post by jkbonfield »

I know I'm not the best at anything I do, but when combined the overlap makes a niche for me that has so far worked out well. Pure luck frankly.

However that is only because the skills I'm thinking of aren't in themselves hugely common. I'm not mega skilled at them, but the relative rarity of some means the overlap really is quite small - fortunately!

It's not going to be good advice if your key skills are, say selling things and being super knowledgable about cars. Oh look, an obvious union but that combination is popular already. So I'd say start by becoming good at a couple niche skills and then see where you end up.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#76

Post by guerrilla »

codingslave wrote: post #9

I think this is a fallacy, its true that becoming 90th% in a few different fields would render you quite the unicorn. The issue is that its common for there to be very low demand for such an overlap of skill sets. Also, how would you leverage such an overlap? These positions and opportunities do not just appear as you are qualified, the job market is extremely inefficient, and not very good at correctly pricing abili…

> Its similar to thinking about the Dunning Kruger effect, a complete waste of time.

What do you mean by this and how do you justify such a statement?

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#78

Post by wolco »

specialp wrote: post #12

An aside, but basketball is probably not the best example. A large amount of men 7ft tall or more have played in the NBA. over 17%. So basketball many of them have achieved elite height not skill. http://www.truthaboutit.net/2012/05/true-or-false-half-of-al...

About 2800 people in the world are 7 feet tall or taller. 0.000038%.

Half are women. 300/400 would be in the age range at anytime. If 10% play basketball. That's only 40.

Re: How to Become the Best in the World at Something

#80

Post by mindgam3 »

markus_zhang wrote: post #64
mindgam3 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to lie, my parents pushed me really hard, which helps develop the mentality. (Probably too hard, but that's a different story) But the great thing about the "striving to be best" mentality is you don't need anyone else to give it to you, and if you didn't get it as a kid it's never too late to start. You just need to be passionate about something and then be crazy enough to see how far you can go with i…

I agree with you. My parents also pushed very hard for me playing piano and I gained skills quickly. However I never really had a lot of interest in it so forgot most of it in recent years. I don't have the mental power to be crazy, but you are right.

> I don’t have the mental power to be crazy

Wait, what? I was clearly using crazy in the Steve Jobs “here’s to the crazy ones” sense. You appear to be implying that unlike you, I do have the mental power to be crazy in the mentally ill sense. That seems slightly unwarranted.

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