[nrhrjrjrjtntbt]

Yes, but leetcode shows some level of smarts. It is not something most people can do.

Like I guess 5% of the population could actually do well at it given the time, practice and motivation. Might be 75% for programmers, granted. But companies dont want people who are unskilled.

Anyway yes the oil analogy is close but it is more like too many people are selling fools oil, and your oil is real and so you vouch for it. So oil is not fungible and the vouch means alot. But vouched and proven oil as a class is fungible. Almost everyone is fungible, you can find another Steve Jobs (they did, Apple is doing well after all) or PoTUS. Maybe entertainment is the exception e.g. Taylor but even then if the job is to sell music she is fairly fungible. Other singers do that too.

[german_dong]

Your generalizing about the fungibility of labor yields nothing. Every successful hire is a unique mix of right place, right time, right man. You control what you can.

[aristofun]

> Every successful hire is a unique mix of right place, right time, right man

This perspective even though technically true yields nothing useful.

Most hires could have (and often do) been replaced by few alternatives in pipeline, and everyone of them would also be unique mix of same things.

Everyone is unique, but business doesn’t care about uniqueness, it cares about getting the job done in a predictable and profitable way.

You control your experience, resume and skills. But not “marketing” that was original point of this discussion.