Ask HN: How did you find what you were good at?

You get good at what you repeatedly practice. But I don't think that's what you're really asking--it sounds like you want a career focus, which is different (and might be entirely unrelated to what you're good at).

What do you enjoy doing over and over, where you lose track of time? What do other people tell you you're good at? When you were young, what did you most enjoy doing? Start with those kinds of questions, and give them some real thought.

Based only on long personal experience, I'd also say: don't waste time looking for an epiphany. That's just not how things work. Also, often motivation follows commitment, not the other way around. In other words, we paradoxically often like and become good at what we decide to do.

Ask yourself what you would do with your time if money weren't an issue. In my experience it's easier to get good at things you want to be doing, and it also keeps you from getting tricked into doing things that everyone else is doing or things that will make money but make you unhappy. If the thing you want to do tends to generate money (CS for example) then you're all set, if it doesn't (music for example) then figure out how to solve the problem of making money with that skill, otherwise you are more likely to be mediocre at multiple things because you'll be forced to do something you don't want to do to pay the bills.

I kept doing things I wasn’t good at. Eventually found something.