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Comment by warrenm | Hacker News Reader

You're way too over-focused on tech trivia in your list

The biggest force multipliers what a friend described to me as a young teenager as "be an and" - don't just be a programmer, be a programmer and a lawyer

Don't just be a welder, be a welder and a baker

Don't just be an engineer, be an engineer and a writer

Etc

You may have heard Scott Adams call it a "talent stack"

Same concept

Be exposed to as many ideas as possible (both good and bad), so that you can draw metaphors and connections between them - and know when you're seeing yet another example of a bad idea, so you don't waste more time than necessary moving to a good idea

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I love this idea. You don’t need to be at the top 1% of a field to do cool innovate stuff, just be good at two or three different fields and see what happens when you combine them. Currently going down this rabbit hole with computational archaeology and having a whale of a time :)

> just be good at two or three different fields and see what happens when you combine them.

"Jack of all trades, master of some." That's been my goal for most of my life.

The 300+ year-old quote is "A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one"

Too often, we cut the first part off, and it sounds horrible!

The whole quote is highly insightful

Computational archeology sounds great, what do you do? Is there more demand?

It’s pretty fun! The field goes from ML image analysis on artifacts, such as trying to identify artists in pottery, through to satellite image analysis, LIDAR scanning, ancient DNA analysis. My friend does underwater archaeology in Japan and spends his time scuba diving and writing code to analyze the images he gets. I was keen on the field because it lets you get out the office for a few months a year for fieldwork. However I’m new to this so there’s a lot more for me to learn still! Starting an archaeology undergrad (distance learning) while working with a few research groups helping them with code in exchange for archaeology experience atm.

The best bit is some of the groups use languages like Haskell so the work itself, from a purely programming perspective, is interesting too!

This is complete bs, real innovation happens exclusively in the top 1 percent of the field. This is just coolaid that some people like to drink to de emphasize the value of real skill and inflate their own egos.

Some of the innovation indeed happens at the edges of what we know, and we learn as human species collectively. But most innovation is about combining multiple fields, and cross pollinate new ideas. Especially in the business world, where there is no unsolved problem, everything has been seen before, and most of us are just paid to get to the solution fastest. Applying knowledge from other fields, can be a great benefit.

They aren't talking about innovation but productivity. The OP asked "what bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers" this should hold true at whatever percentile of a field you chose, top 1%, 10% etc. However, it should be noted that the top 1% of innovators in a given field often do not understand the impact of their innovation on a multi-disciplinary or business context.

It depends.

Real innovation in art software for example could only be done by someone who is highly skilled and experienced in both artistry and software engineering and has an very open mind when it comes to design.

You get get things like Sonic Pi from people who are both musicians and developers.

I’d be interested to know how many interdisciplinary engineers you know who are the top 1% in two fields at the same time :)

*Kool-aid, you 1%-er.

guess it depends on whether it's the Jim Jones version, or the stuff that aids you in being cool ;)

This. I learned a lot of business and management skills on the side... sales, marketing, accounting, vendor negotiation, inventory, merchandise ordering, policy enforcement, staff training, firing people (and how much it sucks), etc... by helping run a furry convention for 5 years.

It's one of the best things I've ever done for my career. I enjoy casually listing that on my resume under volunteering. :)

This so much. I started doing UX and web design as a teenager and only later learned to code. This now helps me tremendously because I learned valuable lessons: In UX/UI design, you usually do like 10 variations of your design if you're not satisfied. This fixation on details often forces you to forget about the hole picture. In the end, you have to take a step back and try out other completely different approaches.

I appreciate this concept, but I'll need someone to tell me what the baker/welder is producing. At this point I NEED TO KNOW

I'd bet they can put a down a mean bead of fondant, or frost their joints well :P

I agree: Computing is terrific stuff, an historic opportunity, but by itself is like an ingot of steel -- needs an application. So, need steel AND something else. So, need computing AND something else. My something else is some pure/applied math that is an advantage in my startup.

I completely agree, you need to be good and 2 or more areas, not necessarily an expert at each of them. The combined effect is insane, and makes you very valuable.

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