A Great Big World Say Something Download

[Abigael Ortyl]

Howhard is it to become an NBA player? Most of them have been honing their skills on the basketball court practically since infancy: years of countless practices, camps, and games to improve their shooting, ball-handling, passing, defense...

Years ago, a friend of mine was about to take the GMAT1. He was hoping to get into some of the top grad schools, and nailing this test was a key step in the process. His first-choice school, Stanford, would only accept the top 6% of applicants. That meant he needed to score in the 94th percentile to have a shot at getting in.

Like these, thousands are succeeding through their skill stack, like the musician who loved coding and ended making a living by creating apps for musicians, or Dinara Kasko, an architect who loved baking and ended up building an empire on top of architected desserts.

When I was a child, my father, who worked in advertising, told me everything he knew about storytelling. I took that passion with me, reading about how to craft stories throughout my life. Later, as an engineering student, I wanted to understand how things are made. However, when reading about storytelling structure, I noticed experts just gave recipes on how to craft stories without explaining why. Thankfully, through my job designing online products, I learned a lot about psychology and experience design, which led me to connect the structure of stories with how our brains work. Finally, a decade ago, I started going to Toastmasters to learn about public speaking because I was so afraid of it.

I dreamed that an engineer as charismatic as an asparagus like me could one day contribute back to the world through impactful communication. I spent the following decade on my communication skills. When my COVID articles passed 60 million readers in 2020, I was rewarded with more impact than I could ever dreamed of.

I am surprised you did not mention languages, though. I know you speak three, at least. Being fluent in several languages gives you not only more possibilities of communicating, but also a deeper understanding of how different people think, and how their thinking differs, and thus of adapting your messages to different publics.

Knowing different languages is closely related to understanding cultures. If the US lost the war in Afghanistan (as did previously the USSR, and the UK), it is mostly because they were not "culture literate," to say it some way, in Afghan culture. Being able to understand and adapt to different cultures is a skill that can be paired to amplify any other you might have.

Secondly, as a woman, while reading your piece, I kept thinking: "In a way, he is talking about what we know as 'multitasking'." Women are excellent at being good in different domains, because we are always multitasking. From cooking (which is chemistry and physics), to psychology (children), to running a home (management). I suspect many women have known this all along. You just have presented it in an academic format (I guess these are your storytelling skills at work).

Your post today resonates deeply, for me, with something I've been thinking about for many years. There's a famous essay by Isaiah Berlin, "The Hedgehog and the Fox", whose point is that one of the most profound differences that divide human beings is between foxes and hedgehogs. It all starts with an obscure fragment by a Greek poet, Archilochus: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing". The poet seems sympathetic with the hedgehog: imagine a fox meaning to kill and eat a hedgehog. She tries many different strategies, but every time the hedgehog rolls up in a ball of spikes, and the fox is frustrated.

Berlin doesn't take sides but classifies writers and thinkers according to this criterion. By instinct, I take sides with the foxes. I think I am a fox myself. Maybe not a very clever one, but a fox nevertheless.

Of course, like all over-simple classifications of this type, the dichotomy becomes, if pressed, artificial, scholastic and ultimately absurd. But if it is not an aid to serious criticism, neither should it be rejected as being merely superficial or frivolous: like all distinctions which embody any degree of truth, it offers a point of view from which to look and compare, a starting-point for genuine investigation."

As you can imagine, the success rate for becoming an NBA player is remarkably low. There are 30 teams of about 15 players each, for a total of roughly 450\u2014not a ton of people, especially given that over 500,000 young men play youth basketball in the US.

So let\u2019s be realistic.

You aren\u2019t going to make it to the NBA.

You will not become the president of the United States.

You will not be the world\u2019s greatest writer, nor the top chess player, nor the most masterful public speaker.

You will never be the best in the world at any given skill.

So trying to be the best at one thing isn\u2019t the smartest path to success. Instead, you should put your effort into mastering a combination of skills. The solution is skill stacking, a concept popularized by Scott Adams. Here\u2019s how it works.

He scored in the 90th percentile on the math portion, and in the 95th percentile on the verbal portion. Does that mean I\u2019m in the 92nd percentile?! Oh nooo! He was dismayed. His heart sank. Those scores wouldn\u2019t cut it. Goodbye, Stanford.

Most math-minded test-takers are bad with words, and the word-loving ones can\u2019t quite hack the fractions. So while my friend\u2019s score wasn\u2019t the best in any one section, it was among the best when these sections were considered in combination.

This is how skill stacking works. It\u2019s easier and more effective to be in the top 10% in several different skills\u2014your \u201Cstack\u201D\u2014than it is to be in the top 1% in any one skill. Take a look at this chart.

Ideally, the skills wouldn\u2019t just be unique, but also complementary. Imagine someone who is reasonably good at public speaking, fundraising, speech-writing, charisma, networking, social media, and persuasion. Who is this person? A successful politician. The most successful politicians don\u2019t seem to be off-the-charts amazing at individual skills, do they? But they check off the right boxes that allow them to thrive.

This principle applies across all fields. A writer can be just about the best prose stylist there is, but probably won\u2019t find as much success as the person who is a reasonably good prose stylist, a strong self-promoter, a pretty fast writer, an engaging public speaker, and has the interpersonal skills to connect with important people in the publishing industry.

He has 9 million Instagram followers, 2.5 million Twitter followers, over 3 million YouTube subscribers, and an active blog that people read as if it were holy scripture. On these channels, you\u2019ll find content that is solid but not exactly mind-blowing. The magic that sets Vaynerchuk apart is his skill stack: The fact that he\u2019s not just a good writer but is also savvy on social media and business, good at public speaking, and great at personal branding is what makes him one of the top self-help gurus in his field.

The principle applies to Steve Jobs, too. At the heart of Jobs\u2019 skill stack was a passion for design, be it fonts, packaging, or architecture. He was obsessive about the look and feel of his products. He was never the best in the world at design, but over time, he developed a keen understanding of winning design principles. He later combined his various design skills with deep insight about what people want, tech knowledge, a strategic mind, salesmanship, an ability to extract everything from his employees, and entrepreneurial skills. Together, these skills helped him form a company that was focused on advanced technology and beautiful design.

In discovering your own skill stack, consider the combination of skills. You want them to be related in some way, but not too similar. For example, if you\u2019re in the top 1% in journalism, also being in the top 1% in writing skills isn\u2019t going to be a big differentiator. Most top journalists are good writers. What\u2019s different about stacking is having skills that not only work together but also are varied enough to make you stand out.

The best skills to choose are those that don\u2019t tend to go together, but complement each other well. For example, engineers aren\u2019t known to be great public speakers, so those who are have a huge professional advantage. (This is what\u2019s called \u201Ccovariance\u201D in statistics. The math about the number of skills above assumes skills are completely independent.)

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