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Comment by wittycardio | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

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 ;)

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