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What Is a Wildcard Person?

wildcardpeople.com

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Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#111

Post by namaria »

corobo wrote: post #99
thaumaturgy wrote: post #32

17 years ago, there was a popular essay about this sort of person, and the label at the time was "Free Electron": https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ Before that, they were known as "generalists", autodidacts, polymaths, etc. The thing is that pretty much any clever person that's easily invested in novel things can become one of these people, so this label isn't reserved for people who are generalists,…

I'd be interested in seeing if other wildcard types actually care about this? Beyond living well of course, need cash for that. My drive is dopamine, not money. As long as I'm fed and not in debt I couldn't give a rat's tail how much I'm earning. I'd take a hefty pay cut to jump on a "hell yes" project.

> I'd take a hefty pay cut to jump on a "hell yes" project.

Very easy to say. Let's get back to it when you have actually taken a hefty pay cut.

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#112

Post by corobo »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #106

Something about this feels "horoscopy". Meaning most people who read this will think "that's me!". I wonder if that is the intent.

Is that accurate? If so there's way more wildcard types on HN than I've bumped into. I need to move to somewhere more wildcard heavy!

When this article says wildcard I think "that's me!" because I do anything from web dev (actual role) to sysadmin (preferred role) to IT security to GDPR compliance to billing clients to looking for new clients to project management to hiring to data admin to research and development (my 2nd last job qualified for a government grant for this one haha) to ..

I've not yet been asked to do something I couldn't at a minimum do a "yeah that will do for now cheers" job on. You might not want me setting up your Kubernetes production cluster (yet), but a prototype or test net? Come back in an hour boss.

The list goes on. I can also plan, direct, shoot, edit, promote videos and podcasts too but it's been a while.

I'm not saying match the skillset but does everyone saying "that's me" have a skillset that looks like someone just picked what to learn by rolling dice? That's what I'm picturing when I identify myself as the wildcard person described in the article.

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#113

Post by aszantu »

sounds like adhd + polygloth to me, it's great to start new things, and terrible when it takes too long. I almost feel represented by this article, although I'm not a programmer (unless I have to be)

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#114

Post by adhdpmthrowaway »

lokimedes wrote: post #23

This is me, this is how I generate value as a full-blown ADHD case. I wonder if there’s a correlation? To add credibility in a corporate setting I have somehow achieved a fearsome combination of Physics PhD, MBA and 25 years of wildcard software development / entrepreneurship. That, combined, legitimizes why I’m allowed to be the wildcard. How have you others managed to be this deep generalist in a specialist’s world…

I've been studying English, Political Scienes, Computational Lingustics, Cognitive Science and Engineering Psychology, then worked as a developer in various startups and am now a Product Manager (a common job title for 'wildcard' people, according to the article).

I've switched jobs on average every 2 years and am still trying to find the one position that can really fill my needs. The closest I got was as a technical Product Owner in a multi-team development effort where I managed to stay on for four years.

I'm also visiting a therapist in two weeks to find out if I have ADHD or not.

I feel this article describes my profile about 90% accurately.

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#118

Post by [deleted] »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #103
pards wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We generalists find work through our network of contacts. People we've worked with previously reach out to us when their current company needs a person like us. In 20+ years as a generalist, I've never been without work.

Exactly: if you're talking to people who already understand your value, then you don't have to pitch your value to them. Specialists also benefit from this, with the additional benefit that they can look for employment outside their network. There are some survivorship biases responding in this thread, but the fact remains that employment opportunities favor specialists over generalists, all other things being equal.

[deleted]

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#119

Post by Laakeri »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #32

17 years ago, there was a popular essay about this sort of person, and the label at the time was "Free Electron": https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ Before that, they were known as "generalists", autodidacts, polymaths, etc. The thing is that pretty much any clever person that's easily invested in novel things can become one of these people, so this label isn't reserved for people who are generalists,…

For example Google hires mostly generalists and lots of people who care about income and career progression work there.

Re: What Is a Wildcard Person?

#120

Post by corobo »

namaria wrote: post #111
corobo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in seeing if other wildcard types actually care about this? Beyond living well of course, need cash for that. My drive is dopamine, not money. As long as I'm fed and not in debt I couldn't give a rat's tail how much I'm earning. I'd take a hefty pay cut to jump on a "hell yes" project.

> I'd take a hefty pay cut to jump on a "hell yes" project. Very easy to say. Let's get back to it when you have actually taken a hefty pay cut.

In November I quit my full time job to go freelance while building my own business because I got bored of the Groundhog Day I was living in (7 year itch?).

So far it's the biggest pay cut I've taken, although admittedly it is looking like it'll stabilise to more than I was on FT over the next couple months. Does that count? Am I allowed to get back to it? Haha

Figured now's the best time to try. No dependents and worst case I crash and burn and move back in with mum for a bit :)

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