95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
danluu.com
95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
1–10 of 161 posts
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#2A not quite obvious side effect of this - you should be aware of the vast majority of things you do that you are not in the top 5% - and don’t sweat it. Most things in life just need to be done, not done exceptionally well, so spend your effort on the things that matter.
For example, I shop pretty badly at the store, no list, no plan - not worth it to me to develop those, I can spend time elsewhere on the things I can be good at.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#3A not quite obvious side effect of this - you should be aware of the vast majority of things you do that you are not in the top 5% - and don’t sweat it. Most things in life just need to be done, not done exceptionally well, so spend your effort on the things that matter. For example, I shop pretty badly at the store, no list, no plan - not worth it to me to develop those, I can spend time elsewhere on the things I ca…
Using a shopping list would actually save you time to spend elsewhere rather than at a crappy grocery store :)
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#4A not quite obvious side effect of this - you should be aware of the vast majority of things you do that you are not in the top 5% - and don’t sweat it. Most things in life just need to be done, not done exceptionally well, so spend your effort on the things that matter. For example, I shop pretty badly at the store, no list, no plan - not worth it to me to develop those, I can spend time elsewhere on the things I ca…
Using a shopping list would actually save you time to spend elsewhere rather than at a crappy grocery store :)
I find I do groceries at similar speeds with or without a list (if anything, I can often be faster if I just get what seems to make sense rather than hunting out something specific from a list). Where it makes the bigger difference is in reduced food waste (probably the biggest difference) and less money spent.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#5A video game and public speaking seem like really weird/unusual examples.
A ton of people play video games, very few people do it professionally. A ton of people give talks, but it’s usually a small part of their jobs. Being even 50%-ile among professionals for either would certainly be extremely impressive.
When I think about normal jobs, which are less competitive fields than professional gaming or speaking, being 95%-ile is very good (although 50%-ile is not great). Certainly, the top 5% of people at my company (200 people in my office, so 10 people I work with) are on the “top of their game”, so to speak - they always drive towards the most important objectives, rarely make errors, come up with incredible ideas, etc.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#6Discussed at the time:
95th percentile isn't that hard to reach - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22265197 - Feb 2020 (286 comments)
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using a shopping list would actually save you time to spend elsewhere rather than at a crappy grocery store :)
I find I do groceries at similar speeds with or without a list (if anything, I can often be faster if I just get what seems to make sense rather than hunting out something specific from a list). Where it makes the bigger difference is in reduced food waste (probably the biggest difference) and less money spent.
Part of it is also “do I get basically the same stuff each time” or in my case the grocery store is a block away so it’s “what five items am I grabbing now”.
And even if I did have a list I’d still be bottom 50% I’m sure.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#8A not quite obvious side effect of this - you should be aware of the vast majority of things you do that you are not in the top 5% - and don’t sweat it. Most things in life just need to be done, not done exceptionally well, so spend your effort on the things that matter. For example, I shop pretty badly at the store, no list, no plan - not worth it to me to develop those, I can spend time elsewhere on the things I ca…
No post body was provided.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#9A video game and public speaking seem like really weird/unusual examples. A ton of people play video games, very few people do it professionally. A ton of people give talks, but it’s usually a small part of their jobs. Being even 50%-ile among professionals for either would certainly be extremely impressive. When I think about normal jobs, which are less competitive fields than professional gaming or speaking, being…
> A video game and public speaking seem like really weird/unusual examples.
I thought they were great examples because most people are familiar with both. Dan's not wrong: most people don't improve because they don't invest in getting better, and often getting better is easy to do. Incidentally, I watched one of my kids do this with Overwatch. She started watching the replays and seeing what she did wrong, and then that turned into what is that player doing right. Two weeks later top 50%.
Re: 95%-ile isn't that good (2020)
#10More interesting is that reaching the 99.99th percentile is very difficult, and yet completely unremarkable. I love David Foster Wallace’s essay on this subject: “ Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness.” He follows a top 200 and is impressed by how absolutely amazing he is at tennis, but ultimately knows the player will know neither fame nor fortune.