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Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

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Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#81

Post by xani_ »

antasvara wrote: post #71
Sakos wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trying to find a bug for 8 hours isn't fun or enjoyable to me. But it is satisfying and I feel great afterwards and it's exactly what I want to be doing.

It feels like you're defining "fun" or "enjoyable" differently than most people would. Most people don't find their "fun" activities enjoyable all the time. Running can be fun, but it also is tiring and sucks sometimes. Practicing a musical instrument isn't the most enjoyable, but playing in a band and nailing songs is. Lifting isn't "fun," but excelling at a sport is. Point being that not liking the boring parts of…

...people find running fun ?

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#82

Post by xani_ »

kleiba wrote: post #59
globular-toast wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with "practice makes perfect". You can keep practising something badly and you'll only get better at doing it badly. This can be seen everywhere. Second language speakers who have no interest in studying the language will continue to sound very non-native after decades of daily use. Musicians build bad habits that hold them back and take a long time to "unlearn". Programmers continue using the same old too…

I don't buy your second language users example because I don't think that "use" necessarily equals "practice". It's usually easier to make major gains at the beginning of the learning journey, and things naturally plateau after a while, unless you put in more effort. Simply speaking the learned language at the level you have already reached will hardly improve your mastership (although I think it will minimally), you…

That's kinda irrelevant tho ? You can practice with purpose yet still practice it badly.

You can also practice with purpose and get to a peak of your ability.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#83

Post by giantg2 »

I'm not sure how to find what you're really good at.

I would think trying new things and finding one you're good at, or passionate about and can improve on, would work.

I'm not really good at anything. I'm above average in quite a few things. I'm fine with that (at least at a hobbies level). Once you get good at something, you realize that there are still many others who are better than you. It's exceedingly rare to be the best in the world at anything. So a lot is perspective.

I also struggle with the work side though. I don't feel like an expert in anything. Even though I have 10 years of experience (at the same company no less), my career feels like there's no continuity - just forget everything and start over on the new team/tech/problem. I'd like to get to a place where I'm expert enough to be comfortable or not stressed and be paid much better. I have no solution to that.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#84

Post by yoshyosh »

The most helpful things I've seen in quick summary are journaling around work: 1. What gives you energy 2. What feels like work/takes away energy

Use that list to double check against any opportunity you're deciding to pursue, aiming for things that primarily give you energy.

To figure out what you may want to pursue, another helpful exercise is listing 3 people you'd like to be like, and 3 companies/roles you'd like to do for work.

Lastly the Ikigai framework can be used as well to double check your decision.

With the combination of these, I think that's one of the fastest ways to discovery (for your current abilities), since it will help you find what you like and what is sustainable which usually leads to inevitable mastery

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#85

Post by suoduandao2 »

I'll add two book suggestions:

How to fail at nearly everything and still win big by Scott Adams. Good for reframing the jumping around you're prone to from goals that you succeed or fail at to systems that simply work.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Good for sticking with a project when the going gets rough (and understanding why it will).

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#87

Post by thom »

You don’t stumble across a thing you’re good at unless it’s trivial, and you may not be particularly good at anything. You can work and practice at stuff and see how it goes. But turning your hobbies into this sort of a grind seems self defeating. If the motivation for asking the question is that you want to feel special and reassure yourself that you’re the protagonist of reality, you’d do much better giving yourself a break and finding what makes you happy (which still takes work but much less).

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#88

Post by otikik »

If you don't know what you want to do, then trying different things is a good way to find out how things really are. It does not scale to all jobs (you can't "try being a neurosurgeon for a while") but will give you an initial perspective for a lot of them.

Keep in mind that at the beginning of a new project or hobby we all go through a "learning phase" in which the effort put does not correspond with a lot of value obtained. Process can be slow, mistakes frequent. That's normal. Look not only where you are now, but where you could end up, and ask yourself if that's where you want to be.

Re: Ask HN: How to find what I am really good at?

#89

Post by sethammons »

jstx1 wrote: post #5
andrewstuart wrote: post #2

You don't "find what you are good at" - that is backwards. Instead, you do what you are interested in, and initially you are not good at it, and with enough time, effort, working at learning and practicing, you will become good at it.

It boils down to the same thing though - OP is struggling to focus on a thing for a long period of time because they don't find stuff interesting enough. You can rephrase it to "how do I find something interesting enough to put a lot of time and effort in".

I've always linked "intelligence/knowledge" with "interest" as interest being the foundation of building the former.

My buddy, literally, couldn't spell "girl" in high school ("does it end in an 'e'?") and calculating percentages? Naw. But he could rebuild an engine and transmission and could identify a plane in the sky by the engine sound and then give a mini-history lesson on the plane, especially if it was involved in war. Then he discovered geology and hydrology.

Now he had a reason to spell (pride in his reports) and aced chemistry (equations and all) and regularly does calculations in his head. I posit the difference was "interest." Once something is interesting, it is much easier to learn about it. Similarly, his dad couldn't get calculus to stick until he saw applications in finance, then the door swung open.

For me, I find most things interesting and people think I'm smarter than I am because of it. However, when it comes to medical/bio stuff, I can't keep it in my head. I superficially like knowing about how sugars are processed by the body but I never remember the pathways and differences between glucose, sucrose, and fructose. It is not of enough interest to stick.

I think the real super power is to convince yourself to actually be interested in a thing.

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