[jacquesm]

> If I had to give 1 bit of general financial advice though: develop your talent stack. It doesn't matter if it's learning a new programming language, wood-working, learning to fix cars or toilets, taking a foreign language class, learning how to paint, or growing a great garden. If you have multiple skills you have more opportunities to make money as well as combining those skills in unique ways to create new business ideas and concepts.

Seconded. When you are wasting time you might as well develop your skills. Fortunes are to be found on the intersection of almost any two skills, if you can add more to the pile you are adding more chances for capturing that value.

[jhanschoo]

> Fortunes are to be found on the intersection of almost any two skills, if you can add more to the pile you are adding more chances for capturing that value.

Do you have some anecdotes to share regarding this?

[jacquesm]

Yes, in fact I have a blog post in draft (for years) already called 'crossroads'. I really should finish that and post it, it might be of actual use to some people.

[effingwewt]

Please do, it's been a while and man the lego sorting[1] was amazing!

[1] https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/

[logicalmonster]

One way to achieve great success is to be better than 99.9999% of people at one thing. Think in terms of Larry Bird or Steph Curry practicing shooting a basketball for many thousands of hours. Or think about a concert pianist or violinist sitting in their studio for years practicing their music over and over and over again, being obsessive about eliminating the slightest mistakes that almost nobody would even notice. If you're talented and driven, you can certainly achieve success this way, but it's pretty hard. You have to be among the best in the world at something very competitive.

But there's another way forward, combining good skills that are greater together. Here's an example of a hypothetical set of skills that can lead to a life-changing amount of fame and financial success.

* Maybe you're not among the best cinematographers in the world, but you know your way around a camera, lighting, and video editing software enough to create a reasonably polished video. Your videos are not Hollywood good, but your ability to create a good looking video is in the top 10% of the population.

* Maybe you're not the absolute funniest, best-looking, and most charismatic person in the world, but you've worked on yourself a bit and are noticeably more appealing than an average person, maybe in the top 15-20% of the population.

* Maybe you're not the absolute smartest person when it comes to computers, but you've built a few gaming PCs, took some Computer Science courses in college, read some blogs and forums, and spend some of your free time following the industry. You might be in the top 10% of the general population when it comes to general computer knowledge.

By itself, none of those skills are remarkable in the slightest. You're never going to get a job setting up special effects shots for Michael Bay, no agent is going to notice you at Starbucks and give you a contract as a model or actor, and Tim Cook isn't going to ever call you at 2 AM begging for your help with emergency fixes to some web service. But you put those 3 things together in the right way, and you can be a successful Technology YouTuber that has a mass following and influences the computer industry to some extent.

I'd think Kanye is a good example of somebody well-known to look at in terms of a list of talents that are good, but not anywhere close to the best. I'd argue that by music and fashion industry standards, he's nowhere close to the best singer, lyricist, dancer, businessman, or designer in the world. But he has a lot of skills that are all above average when compared to the general population. That's enough to be incredibly successful when combined with his self-promotional ability, risk-taking, desire to increase his knowledge, stubbornness, self-confidence, and charisma.