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Comment by petke | Hacker News Reader

That's good advice. Find a niche basically.

It don't think it works for every career though. Being good or even being the most skilled at a niche. Musicians and actors, any job that has as much to do with popularity as with skill. Very few make it and the ones that do, don't seem better than most of the ones that dont.

I have been listening to enough open mic nights and small time bar gigs to think so. Its sad really, how many talented musicians there is in this world that never make it. Music that gives you the chills. And then you put on the radio and its an endless stream of crap.

My career advice would be, don't get into anything that requires popularity. Its a cruel world out there.

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Reminds me of Tony Horton (P90X dude). He worked for years as a trainer and aspiring actor/standup comedian. He didn't hit it big until he started making exercise videos when in his forties. The acting and comedic skills combined with the trainer skills made him successful.

Scott says: 1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

You raise a fascinating point. Following Scott's format. I wonder if a person can: 1. be the very best musician. 2. Be very good at networking (top 25%) or playing at events .

Now my question to you, petke. With those two things, would any person wanting to be a musician be a successful musician?

Good point. Those musicians that made it, maybe they where just better at networking.

The music I tend to like most is these folk type singer/songwriter with an acoustic guitar singing sad songs. A lot of those musicians seem quite introvert and shy, and are probably bad at networking. So it might explain why so many of them don't make it despite their talents.

Haha one of my fav indie singers didn't even bother to reply when I told her her domain was expiring. It's now lost to the shitty secondary market. I guess she gave up. Let me know your email if you'd like to know the artist.

He would suggest learning a secondary skill that makes your musicianship stand out. PDQ Bach is an example.

I knew a guy in college who was an outstanding tuba player. But it's not like there are a ton of tuba gigs out there. So he developed a whole act geared toward kids. Pretty much every conductor has to do at least one children's concert per year, so he's able to distinguish himself as an unorthodox performer that kids love.

"My career advice would be, don't get into anything that requires popularity. Its a cruel world out there."

Sounds like creating a startup versus a normal dev job.

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