> You're a thought leader because you are really. fucking. good. at something and you're sharing it This is wishful thinking. In my time in Silicon Valley I've

> You're a thought leader because you are really. fucking. good. at something and you're sharing it This is wishful thinking. In my time in Silicon Valley I've witnessed such "thought leaders" get prestigious speaking engagements, being quoted in the press, etc, but very often not being exceptional at anything. In fact the effort it takes to be really great at something barely overlaps the effort it takes to be a public figure (at extremely high levels, e.g. Elon Musk, obviously this doesn't hold, but these people are the exception). The way they do it is with a small seed of something they can claim ("i helped invent X" - if X is small enough and far enough in time no one will care), and from there they move upwards and build on it. "I invented X, let me give a talk". "I invented X and gave a talk at Y, let me be an advisor". "I invented X, gave a talk at Y, and was an advisor for Z...". Same principle as that guy who traded a potato for something else for something else... and ended up with a house. I've worked with such a clown- he was completely useless. But he got interviews on CNN, WSJ, etc so the CEO didn't want to piss him off by firing him and he got "promoted" to advisor after a while. He's off to a way more prestigious thing now, presumably because no one ever wants to get on his bad side because he's "so well connected" (if only people knew what all of his connections really think of him). So yeah, it's sad for us nerds, but it's very easy to cheat at this game - and any time you spend doing actually meaningful work is time you don't spend promoting yourself, which puts you at a disadvantage.