People Who Have “Too Many Interests” More Likely to Be Successful | Hacker News Reader

People Who Have “Too Many Interests” More Likely to Be Successful

medium.com

66 pointsjxub24 comments

Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein

Thanks for this, I've seen it before but lost the link and was unable to find it.

This is a great to-do list.

I've done all but four of them. Not counting the final one. Hope I will though.

I am really not that great of a programmer. I am 35 and was not paid to write code until I was 31. Before I learned to code I spent about 10 years in the military, infantry to be specific. The leadership and problem solving skills learned in that domain have served me extremely well in my current position and pushed me into a project lead position before my first year of employment was over.

I have found solving problems outside of your normal problem domain allows you to develop fresh ideas inside of your domain.

Nice, I'd like to hear your story if you don't mind sharing. I have a similar background. Infantry for 6 years and switched to programming about two years back.

I work with a few as well. I have found a lot of nerds live in the Infantry, most like myself, just needed some direction when we were younger, which Uncle Sam was willing to provide.

This! HN is full of people like us, however we're mostly silent. Adaptability as a core skill is an excellent asset to have.

There is certainly an element of truth, but I feel the life coach formulaic decomposition is heavily at play here. This to me signifies that there are a lot of elements which are necessary to execute this effectively which are either not mentioned, not connected or straight up unknown. The trap is that this is read, a moment of "I am already interested in loads, I am destined to be successful" ...when there is a lot more to the story. Given the value of rarity (as mentioned), even knowing all this is not enough.

Hey - I'm the author of the article. You bring up some good points.

I agree that being a world-class polymath is difficult just like being world-class at anything is challenging. Some of the challenges specific to polymaths are:

1. Not really any formal training in the school system on how to connect disciplines.

2. Sometimes people consider take polymath to mean not having a core area of expertise. In the article, I make the case that a modern polymath is someone who learns skills across disciplines and combines them in their core area of specialty to create a skill set that puts them in the top of their field.

3. Many environments are not conducive to being a polymath. So, it's important to find fields, job, companies, etc. that are.

I’d like this to be true as someone who is tempermentally a bit of a polymath but professionally I’ve seen the returns to specialization go up as the entry bar gets higher. Nothing in the article convinces me that what applies to a few rare geniuses whose names we know because they were so exceptional applies to me. Having multiple skills can give you flexibility, but I still think you need many years in one discipline to make it worthwhile. It is a golden age for autodidacts of course so for those willing to put in the time to go deep maybe it will pay off.

I'm the author of the article. Good comments. A few quick thoughts.

1. I agree about being an autodidact. It is hard to imagine someone being a successful polymath without one.

2. The article isn't making the case that people should avoid specialization. It is making the case that people should learn across disciplines and then apply what they learn in their core area of specialty.

As someone with many interests and a mix of work experience. I find this article encouraging.

I've been a quantitative analyst, software engineer, and investment analyst. I have a MEng in Mathematical modelling and a CFA Charterholder.

Sometimes I worry my skill set and past experience are too diverse.

I have too many interests, and I recently learned how to delegate and use others to enhance my life and give amazing employment opportunities. For instance, I have a junior adventurer whose role is to go places in advance, take photos, tell me a story. This helps me focus my time on the best experiences when I go so I limit my disappointment.

You pay someone to pre-vacation for you? Let me know when your hiring..

I am thinking of turning it into a summer internship for people that work on my farm during the winter.

You have someone who tests out adventures for you? Wouldn't hearing about his experiences and stories ruin the mystery and adventure when you go? That sounds disappointing to me

Yes, I'm experimenting with it. Basically, I work many hours on work that I love, but that leaves me few opportunities for my own adventures on the weekends since I also have a farm to tend to. I've currently committed a few thousand dollars to see how I feel about this as an expense. My junior adventurer is currently scouting three zoos to get a sense of which is best, and what animals are like, and also what times works for which animals.

Either I could go on all three, or I could pick one. Well, I could do a bunch of research, or I could delegate.

What I may end up doing is funding many of these expeditions that are all within two hours of me, and then put them in a community blog.

If this works out, then I would then do the same thing for local farms and steal ideas and do interviews to publish.

Well it's an interesting idea, with an intriguing motivation. It seems like it comes down to trusting the junior adventurer and how well they know you.

It reminds me of a science-fiction plot (the name escapes me), where a scientist clones themselves multiple times. Each of the clones does a task for the scientist, dating, socializing and working. Then the scientist can relax... but then he eventually realizes that by delegating these parts of his life, he missed out on love, friendship and fulfilment (Sorry not intended to offend).

It's just an strange idea to me and I would love to see an article describing the experiment and how it works out for you.

It's definitely an experiment, and one of the reasons is due to the fact that I have goats. I had to hire some people to help during the winter since two of our boy goats developed stones which increased our workload by a bunch since we had to isolate them.

As the cold season ends, our chores for goats is reducing. So, either I need to fire, or I need to invent ways. I also plan to have this junior adventurer focus on some gardening aspects as well. However, we are waiting for last frost.

I like the stuff you put on your website and will be stealing your ideas. Good and shameful.

Thanks

Shameless plug for my newsletter because I write exclusively about mental models which transcend disciplines: https://alexpetralia.github.io/newsletters

I have found writing it a fantastic learning resource for myself.

Hey Alex - I'm the author of the article, and love your site. Is there a good email to reach you at?

Define Successful

Reply on news.ycombinator.com