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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

#101

Post by jugjug »

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…

To me the article is very helpful. I aim to be in the global top 10-20% for the following areas: engineering, movement (functional capabilities of my body), martial arts (BJJ, maybe later MMA), nutrition, inner practice & discovering the nature of consciousness, art of learning and presenting. Combining engineering with one or two areas might be an interesting opportunity. The pool of software engineers who e.g. also do martial arts, or are interested in meditation or the process of learning seems globally large enough to support possible well-executed business.

Regarding marketing, I start to gravitate more towards experts who provide long-form content. For example, Ray Peat in nutrition [1] or John Danaher in BJJ [2]. This might be another marketing approach - no marketing at all, just providing high-quality long-form content, with no social media. It might attract people who think in a similar way as me.

[1] http://raypeat.com/

[2] https://bjjfanatics.com/products/back-attacks-enter-the-syst...

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

#102

Post by ken »

spacedog11 wrote: post #97

Author of the article gives one TedX talk, then goes on to proclaim that he's an "expert" at public speaking and ranks himself in the "90" percentile for public speaking. What a joke!

Fear of public speaking is consistently ranked the #1 fear of the average person. I would absolutely put someone who can do it confidently in the top 10%. That's the point of the article: "A bit of work can quickly get you to the top 10%".

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

#103

Post by matwood »

playing_colours wrote: post #69
matwood wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only way to get world-class at something is to work your ass off. To have discipline and apply yourself consistently to the practice, day in and day out, for years. I completely agree with you. I have commented many times on HN about discipline and how much it can change your life (it changed mine). I probably have nowhere near the discipline you have cultivated, but I'm working every day to get better.

Could you share please how you cultivate the discipline, and maybe, books/ podcasts that inspired you?

Absolutely! Let me start by saying that I power lifted for years, but outside of that I was not very disciplined. A couple years ago I came across Jocko Willinks twitter which led me to his podcast. His no nonsense "Extreme Ownership" approach spoke to me. If you want an introduction to him, a good start would be to listen to him on Tim Ferris or Joe Rogans podcast first. His YouTube channel also has a lot of clips. My summary of take aways are:

* Motivation is fleeting, so is something that cannot be relied upon.

* Practice discipline every single day. I have found that discipline builds upon itself. I get up at the same time every day (even on the weekends). I work out every day. It's not even something I think about, it's just what has to be done.

* I get up early, not 4:30 early, but between 5-6am every day (and before all the sleep is required people jump on me, I'm in bed by 9-10pm). It sounds silly, but jumping out of bed ready to go when the alarm goes off is the first discipline win of the day.

It's really just a mindset of doing what you know needs to get done. Whether it's working on something at work or controlling your emotions when someone cuts you off in traffic. There are tons of opportunities every day to practice and help you improve your discipline.

If there was one book that I would pick to read, it would be Musashi. It's probably not the standard book someone would recommend, but it was huge inspiration for me. It is an amazing story with so many lessons on discipline and life.

Finally, not to get too philosophical but I also see many of the same lessons when training Jiu Jitsu. It teaches many things beyond discipline, and is something I recommend to everyone.

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

#105

Post by pbulises »

msluyter wrote: post #75

This seems to be an elaboration/rediscovery/variant of something Scott Adams[1] said a while ago: https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/car... Decent advice, imho. [1] Note, this does not constitute an endorsement of Scott's political views.

Yep, I quote him in the article as such! "The solution is skill stacking, a concept popularized by Scott Adams."

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

#106

Post by pbulises »

forgotmypw wrote: post #87

Why is it acceptable to submit an article which is selectively inaccessible to the majority of users? All I see is: How to Become the Best in the World at Something With skill stacking, you don’t need to be at the top to be extraordinary Tomas Pueyo Oct 17 · 7 min read It’s better to have three okay tools than a single, perfect one. The axe is great at breaking obstacles, but not that useful to jump over pits. The gr…

Author here. You can read it free here: https://forge.medium.com/how-to-become-the-best-in-the-world...

I'm ambivalent about Medium's approach. All in all, I do think that you get what you pay for. FB's negative impact is due to their ad monetization strategy. Medium is trying to charge through subscriptions vs advertising, and pays according to time reading vs. impressions, so is much more aligned with readers than non-subscription media.

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

#107

Post by thisisbrians »

rootusrootus wrote: post #92
guerrilla wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

I can't speak for the OP, but Dunning-Kruger does seem pretty useless as a practical matter. Maybe it tells you why you see so many overconfident dumb people. Maybe you realize it's more useful as a warning to you for thinking you are the smart one in the equation. Either way, it doesn't really offer anything actionable.

I disagree. Understanding fundamentally how and why people can be overconfident is very useful when interacting with others, especially in a professional setting or anywhere else that politics are involved: frequently, overconfidence (especially when unchallenged) is rewarded — for instance, in interview processes. Having a name for the mechanism at play is useful for assessing and communicating about such situations.
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