Thread by @tomaspueyo

Has anybody ever told you "Stop being a Jack of All Trades, Master of None"?

They're wrong

It's "Jack of Some Trades, Master of One"

This is why, and how it's the only way to become the best in the world at something. 🧵
unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/how-to-becom…

Becoming the best in the world at some skill is nearly impossible. There's always somebody stronger than you, cleverer than you, with better genetics, who worked harder...

The more you work on standing out in a domain, the more you face these phenomenal competitors.

That's why becoming the best in the world at something takes too much work.

It's nearly impossible to be the best, but it's quite easy to be in the top 10% or so.

Eg a friend passed the GMAT. He needed to be in the top 94% to be accepted at Stanford.

He got 90% in math and 95% in verbal comprehension. He felt dejected. What's that, 92.5%?

Then he noticed he was in the 98% percentile! How was that possible?

Those in math tend to be bad verbally and vice-versa.
Eg the norm might be that a 95% score in math typically puts you at 70% in verbal.

The combination of 90% math and 95% verbal was so unique that it put him at 98% overall.

This is valid for all types of skills in the world. Try to be the best at one? Impossible. But take two, try to just be at the top 10% or 1%. That is substantially less work, but the combination might be so unique that it's enough to be the best in the world at the combination.

A good example is @garyvee: 9M IG followers, 2.5M on Twitter, 3M on YouTube

His advice is not the most novel or well researched, but it's solid. Where he stands out: writing, aesthetics, social media, business, public speaking, personal branding. The combo makes him special

Same thing for @DinaraKasko
She might not be the best architect in the world or the best baker. But she's probably the best at architecting desserts

The same is true for me. I'm reasonably good at engineering, design, psychology, public speaking, storytelling... Nothing special in any of them, but good enough

But that combo was enough to put together a TEDx on the psychological underpinning of storytelling structure
ted.com/talks/tomas_pu…

So stop trying to be the best at one skill. You’re setting yourself up for some serious disappointment. Instead, ask yourself: In what niche do I want to stand out? What combination of skills do I need to be unique in that niche?

It’s not about being great at any one thing — you just need to be pretty good at an array of useful skills that, when combined, make you truly one of a kind

This article is dedicated to all the people who ever dreamed of achieving something
special.

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/how-to-becom…

I stacked skills to write articles like this one and the COVID pieces. In this week’s premium article, I’ll cover:
- what types of skills to pick for your stack
- the questions ppl ask about this
- the skill stack I developed and how I did it
(cont)

- how to develop these skills efficiently
- how to think about skill covariance
- when to “follow your passion”
- other benefits of skill stacking
- the importance of Epistemic Trespassing.
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