4 ms·

I don't find these sorts of articles valuable. The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super

I don't find these sorts of articles valuable. The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying. If we remove all the filler in this article (more or less the entire article), it amounts to "be okay at multiple things rather than trying to be good at something". As per usual with incredibly vague life advice from unaccomplished people, this isn't always a good idea to apply. Being excellent at something (or at least very good) has its merits. For example, I don't want someone who can write "Hello, World!" in 30 programming languages. I want someone who understands even just one programming language inside and out, and really puts the effort into improving. > "Every Skill You Acquire Doubles Your Odds Of Success" No it doesn't. Bonus points if you have a modal that pops up to sucker you into a free mailing list in hopes of converting you to an over-priced life advice seminar / program / book. There is no secret bullet to productivity, and paying $197 for this snake oil salesman's course (how long do you want to bet that "sale" has been going on for?) is not going to help you. Eat well. Sleep. Maintain relationships with people you care about. Work hard, pay attention to what you're doing and think critically. That's all there is to it. > "Read over 500 books" Someone bragging about the number of books they read is hilarious. Congratulations on $1.2m in revenue and a business degree, but that doesn't make you worth listening to.

tandav 8y ago
so good advice will be: just read technical articles that develop your skills
User23 8y ago
Also he's just plagiarizing Scott Adams's notion of a "talent stack."
- carlmr 8y ago
  I was going to say the same, no attribution at all, and dubious claims about how your success will increase. I believe the talent stack is a valid principle, but it doesn't just double your success if you go to toastmasters and learn how to present and at your job you have neither a commission nor any customer contact.
  - bertjk 8y ago
    He does attribute, right in the second line of the whole piece: >> The more skills we have, the more odds we have to become successful. I like how Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, explains the concept of Skill Stacking ...
    - carlmr 8y ago
      My bad, skimmed it very quickly and didn't see that.
      - User23 8y ago
        I searched the page text for Adams before I posted and saw nothing. I guess I missed it too somehow or the page was updated.
fclaerho 8y ago
Agreed, that article could not be more vague. I don't argue with the main point, which is "broaden your skills." But the rest is debatable and not such good advice. Some of the items given in the "skill list" used as an example are absolutely unusable as it. "writing"? writing what, there's a huge difference between being able to write novels and writing technical documentation for instance. I also have a grip on "productivity", that's not a skill, that's the ability to apply a skill. A better pragmatic definition of a marketable skill, I think, would be the ability to write it on your résumé, and only a subset of the ones discussed in the article fit this definition.
godelmachine 8y ago
>>Eat well. Sleep. Maintain relationships with people you care about. Work hard, pay attention to what you're doing and think critically. That's all there is to it. That’s my takeaway.
- tralarpa 8y ago
  Hmm, I don't know...These sound like good advices to do your job well and might even lead to happiness (which is good of course). But if your goal is to have a successful career maybe this would be more useful: Word hard on the right things, pay attention to what the others are doing and praise your own work uncritically :)
  - godelmachine 8y ago
    >>praise your own work uncritically Am I not supposed to be critical of my work, and review it not pulling any punches, without being economical with the Truth?
  - Amygaz 8y ago
    The question is: “what is your definition of success?” or “what is success to you? or “what do you think will make other people say you are successful?” For a lot of uninspired and uncreative people, it’s mostly about the 3rd question, and it’s money, just money... And they probably subscribe to a blog saying to blog everyday, and that’s how you get poor quality, uninspiring blog.
ensiferum 8y ago
It's just this "empty" content that every blogger is spewing these days just to publish something.
- rchaud 8y ago
  > just to publish something Every blogger knows there is no money in "content mill" style writing. they publish this pseudo-self help stuff to generate leads for their ebooks and training seminars.
avip 8y ago
But you can't publish a medium post which reads pay attention to what you're doing. You have to crappify it.
- rchaud 8y ago
  "10 ways in which billionaires pay attention to the right things". There, now your post has a Medium-worthy title.
tirumaraiselvan 8y ago
>The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying In technical terms, what you are suggesting is that the article is making a claim which is unfalsifiable. But actually it is falsifiable. All you have to do is find a person who has diverse skills but is unsuccessful.
- peteretep 8y ago
  > All you have to do is find a person who has diverse skills but is unsuccessful I know many people like this, but I suspect the No True Scotsman fallacy would get invoked.
  - Aeolun 8y ago
    They’re clearly not skilled enough at their diverse skills. It’d be a bit like me trying to sell myself as a master of multiple instruments.
    - peteretep 8y ago
      >> I suspect the No True Scotsman fallacy would get invoked > They’re clearly not skilled enough at their diverse skills One of my skills is accurate predictions, it turns out.
- EForEndeavour 8y ago
  Finding a single counterexample works in mathematics to disprove a theorem, but not in this situation. It is silly to claim that having diverse skills guarantees success. The article doesn't even claim that; it explicitly mentions increasing the odds of success. To "disprove" this claim, you'd need to design and run a study that looks for a statistical relationship between success and skill diversity, both of which you'd have to quantify somehow.
  - Amygaz 8y ago
imgabe 8y ago
> For example, I don't want someone who can write "Hello, World!" in 30 programming languages. Would anyone consider this being "ok" at 30 different things? That is just reductive to the point of not making any sense. In the scope the post is talking about "programming" would be one thing. So 30 different languages would be irrelevant. And being able to write only "hello world" would not even qualify as being "ok" at a programming language.
Chris2048 8y ago
> Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying. Worked for Agile ducks
- JackFr 8y ago
  Well in fairness some Agile is controversial.
  - Chris2048 8y ago
    I've only ever heard it sold as an ala-carte solution, where you can freely pick-and-choose the least controversial bits. Agile-lite by default.
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    I think you meant Fragile (tm)
matwood 8y ago
Great comment. For the article writer it seemed like a numbers game or checklist. Learn X languages (whatever 'learn' means here) or read X number of books. IME, what you learn and read is more important than the raw numbers. I'm selective in what I will devote a large amount of time doing. If I'm reading a book for something other than downtime enjoyment, I want to make sure it's a book that I will get something useful out of (bonus points to books that provide enjoyment and usefulness). Breadth of knowledge is useful, but someone also needs depth in something.
Amygaz 8y ago
The SMBC comics this morning was about a Turing test for non-fiction literature, but it would apply to this also
Kagerjay 8y ago
I think these articles have value, but in moderation. It's like watching TED talks - watch too many, you become the antithesis of productive. Focus too much on productivity software, you lose sight in what matters. Focus on your life, people you care about, and work hard. But you should be your biggest critic, don't expect someone else to do this for you. Per the topic itself. I tend to enjoy many things, so skillstacking is something I naturally pursue. My take on this topic, is just to create value as much as possible. Not just for others, but yourself as well. Things like learning new software, building tools people use, workshops you can use to make DIY projects, and long term relationships. Sure there will be mistakes, you will write cringey things like "Read over 500 books" in your about page, but it's still progression. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

tandav 8y ago

so good advice will be: just read technical articles that develop your skills

User23 8y ago

Also he's just plagiarizing Scott Adams's notion of a "talent stack."

carlmr 8y ago
I was going to say the same, no attribution at all, and dubious claims about how your success will increase. I believe the talent stack is a valid principle, but it doesn't just double your success if you go to toastmasters and learn how to present and at your job you have neither a commission nor any customer contact.
- bertjk 8y ago
  He does attribute, right in the second line of the whole piece: >> The more skills we have, the more odds we have to become successful. I like how Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, explains the concept of Skill Stacking ...
  - carlmr 8y ago
    My bad, skimmed it very quickly and didn't see that.
    - User23 8y ago
      I searched the page text for Adams before I posted and saw nothing. I guess I missed it too somehow or the page was updated.

fclaerho 8y ago

Agreed, that article could not be more vague. I don't argue with the main point, which is "broaden your skills." But the rest is debatable and not such good advice. Some of the items given in the "skill list" used as an example are absolutely unusable as it. "writing"? writing what, there's a huge difference between being able to write novels and writing technical documentation for instance. I also have a grip on "productivity", that's not a skill, that's the ability to apply a skill. A better pragmatic definition of a marketable skill, I think, would be the ability to write it on your résumé, and only a subset of the ones discussed in the article fit this definition.

godelmachine 8y ago

>>Eat well. Sleep. Maintain relationships with people you care about. Work hard, pay attention to what you're doing and think critically. That's all there is to it. That’s my takeaway.

tralarpa 8y ago
Hmm, I don't know...These sound like good advices to do your job well and might even lead to happiness (which is good of course). But if your goal is to have a successful career maybe this would be more useful: Word hard on the right things, pay attention to what the others are doing and praise your own work uncritically :)
- godelmachine 8y ago
  >>praise your own work uncritically Am I not supposed to be critical of my work, and review it not pulling any punches, without being economical with the Truth?
- Amygaz 8y ago
  The question is: “what is your definition of success?” or “what is success to you? or “what do you think will make other people say you are successful?” For a lot of uninspired and uncreative people, it’s mostly about the 3rd question, and it’s money, just money... And they probably subscribe to a blog saying to blog everyday, and that’s how you get poor quality, uninspiring blog.

ensiferum 8y ago

It's just this "empty" content that every blogger is spewing these days just to publish something.

rchaud 8y ago
> just to publish something Every blogger knows there is no money in "content mill" style writing. they publish this pseudo-self help stuff to generate leads for their ebooks and training seminars.

avip 8y ago

But you can't publish a medium post which reads pay attention to what you're doing. You have to crappify it.

rchaud 8y ago
"10 ways in which billionaires pay attention to the right things". There, now your post has a Medium-worthy title.

tirumaraiselvan 8y ago

>The template is simple: Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying In technical terms, what you are suggesting is that the article is making a claim which is unfalsifiable. But actually it is falsifiable. All you have to do is find a person who has diverse skills but is unsuccessful.

peteretep 8y ago
> All you have to do is find a person who has diverse skills but is unsuccessful I know many people like this, but I suspect the No True Scotsman fallacy would get invoked.
- Aeolun 8y ago
  They’re clearly not skilled enough at their diverse skills. It’d be a bit like me trying to sell myself as a master of multiple instruments.
  - peteretep 8y ago
    >> I suspect the No True Scotsman fallacy would get invoked > They’re clearly not skilled enough at their diverse skills One of my skills is accurate predictions, it turns out.
EForEndeavour 8y ago
Finding a single counterexample works in mathematics to disprove a theorem, but not in this situation. It is silly to claim that having diverse skills guarantees success. The article doesn't even claim that; it explicitly mentions increasing the odds of success. To "disprove" this claim, you'd need to design and run a study that looks for a statistical relationship between success and skill diversity, both of which you'd have to quantify somehow.
- Amygaz 8y ago

imgabe 8y ago

> For example, I don't want someone who can write "Hello, World!" in 30 programming languages. Would anyone consider this being "ok" at 30 different things? That is just reductive to the point of not making any sense. In the scope the post is talking about "programming" would be one thing. So 30 different languages would be irrelevant. And being able to write only "hello world" would not even qualify as being "ok" at a programming language.

Chris2048 8y ago

> Write generic advice that sounds nice, and is never controversial. Make sure it's super vague so you don't have to take any accountability for it, you can move the goalposts of what you're saying. Worked for Agile ducks

JackFr 8y ago
Well in fairness some Agile is controversial.
- Chris2048 8y ago
  I've only ever heard it sold as an ala-carte solution, where you can freely pick-and-choose the least controversial bits. Agile-lite by default.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  I think you meant Fragile (tm)

matwood 8y ago

Great comment. For the article writer it seemed like a numbers game or checklist. Learn X languages (whatever 'learn' means here) or read X number of books. IME, what you learn and read is more important than the raw numbers. I'm selective in what I will devote a large amount of time doing. If I'm reading a book for something other than downtime enjoyment, I want to make sure it's a book that I will get something useful out of (bonus points to books that provide enjoyment and usefulness). Breadth of knowledge is useful, but someone also needs depth in something.

Amygaz 8y ago

The SMBC comics this morning was about a Turing test for non-fiction literature, but it would apply to this also

Kagerjay 8y ago

I think these articles have value, but in moderation. It's like watching TED talks - watch too many, you become the antithesis of productive. Focus too much on productivity software, you lose sight in what matters. Focus on your life, people you care about, and work hard. But you should be your biggest critic, don't expect someone else to do this for you. Per the topic itself. I tend to enjoy many things, so skillstacking is something I naturally pursue. My take on this topic, is just to create value as much as possible. Not just for others, but yourself as well. Things like learning new software, building tools people use, workshops you can use to make DIY projects, and long term relationships. Sure there will be mistakes, you will write cringey things like "Read over 500 books" in your about page, but it's still progression. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.