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What Is a Wildcard Person?

• aszantu 4y ago
  sounds like adhd + polygloth to me, it's great to start new things, and terrible when it takes too long. I almost feel represented by this article, although I'm not a programmer (unless I have to be)
• golemotron 4y ago
  Is Wildcard the new 10x?
  • anonyme-honteux 4y ago
    No it's about generalists versus specialists, problem solvers versus maintainers. There is not one category inherently better than the other contrary to the 10x bullshit, they will thrive in different contexts
    • leftbit 4y ago
      A wildcard tends to focus on the problem solving and tries to cut on the fluff. So this feels certainly being more productive than dancing the process steps, striving for perfect code coverage by unit tests, nitpicking in code reviews and messing around with "cool" frameworks. (I consider myself a "wilcard". Once joined a project for a sprint with a very elaborate development process. Spent about one hour on things I consider "work", the rest of the day was just "idling" to get this "work" past an armada of "quality gates". So yes, on my own I feel several times more productive then some process junkies while delivering "good enough" code, according to circumstances.)
      • Jensson 4y ago
        Organisations are built by interesting people on top of boring people. Boring people makes for better building material, they are easy to work with, put them somewhere and they will do their task, without them you wont get large lasting organisations, the value cannot be realized without a combination of both.
        • leftbit 4y ago
          Quite so. As the article stated there are quite a lot of things wildcards abhor which the company needs done somehow anyway. Devs with another mentality. But that wasn't my point in my previous comment. I was thinking more along the lines of "value for the customer" and the 80:20-rule. I'm quite aware there's a strong correlation between code quality and the quality perceived by the customer, but if the customer didn't demand a certain percentage of code coverage or that every typo fix in a comment has to be done on a developer branch and code reviewed I see no value in these activities. So I feel more productive if I'm able to omit those steps. Others probably think they're more productive than me because I don't get anything "really finished" by their standards.
      • golemotron 4y ago
        Are some people 10x more wildcard than other people?
• taubek 4y ago
  Nice read. Kind of reminds me of T shaped people - https://jchyip.medium.com/why-t-shaped-people-e8706198e437 https://jchyip.medium.com/why-t-shaped-people-e8706198e437
  • theflyingelvis 4y ago
    Interesting. Never heard this term before.
  • lytefm 4y ago
    I'd also say that being a T shaped person is how I'd try to be „hirable“ as a generalist. Get really good at one thing that has a title (in my case: „Data Engineer“) but also have a broad range of skills.
    • taubek 4y ago
      Sometimes it sucks to be T-shaped. Imposter syndrome kicks in all of the time :)
      • lytefm 4y ago
        Doesn't it get balanced by the occasional „Why do I have to show you how to do your job“? ;)
        • taubek 4y ago
          I've never been in such situation. Usually it is expected from me to do it all :)
  • Terretta 4y ago
    Glad to see this here. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatilist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatilist http://agilemodeling.com/essays/generalizingSpecialists.htm http://agilemodeling.com/essays/generalizingSpecialists.htm
• J_cst 4y ago
  That's basically talking about me. On my job they call me Mr. Wolf and I love it. The description is quite accurate, main difference being that the article focuses mainly on semi-marketing tasks instead I tend to be assigned higher level issues (I mainly deal with emergencies raised by our CEOs). It was nice to read it, I feel less lonely now.
  • MikeDelta 4y ago
    Cool nick, does it refer to a character or the animal itself?
    • omegabravo 4y ago
      character from Pulp Fiction. The "problem solver" https://quentin-tarantino.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wolf https://quentin-tarantino.fandom.com/wiki/The_Wolf
  • Manjuuu 4y ago
    To make you feel even less lonely, you are not the only one that was called Mr Wolf :)
• llIIllIIllIIl 4y ago
  Fuck me, reading this is like looking in the mirror. Please don’t write stuff on this topic any more, it’s creepy.
  • robmerki 4y ago
    Sorry
• eyelidlessness 4y ago
  It you’re one of these people take a break! You’re gonna burn out. You’re going to do more valuable work if you don’t. Sincerely, very tired person who recognizes myself in the article.
  • robmerki 4y ago
    Wildcard burnout will be the next article
  • RHSman2 4y ago
    Recovering burnt out wildcard here. It’s the walking the thin line between doom and success (I use that term loosely)
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• Semaphor 4y ago
  Also, the other side, "Why hire a Wildcard?" https://wildcardpeople.com/why-hire-a-wildcard https://wildcardpeople.com/why-hire-a-wildcard
• braingenious 4y ago
  “What is a person with somewhat varied skills??” I scream as I smash my debit card number into my keyboard to buy a domain for this concept that I’ve just invented. I smile slyly at my partner, a meth pipe.
  • BarryMilo 4y ago
    It's all relative. I'm the only person in any startup I've worked at to work on tasks spanning 5-6 knowledge domains. Most people seem to stick to one thing, maybe two. CEOs know a little about a lot of things too, but they're not actually fighting the fires most of the time, e.g. fixing that bug, writing copy, answering the SOC2 audit questions, etc.
    • braingenious 4y ago
      Buddy you’re definitely not the only person that’s good at multiple things that you’ve ever worked with.
      • BarryMilo 4y ago
        Didn't say I was? But apart from founders, people just generally seem afraid to step out of their comfort zone or something. It's possible I've just been "unlucky" though.
  • tz18 4y ago
    Honestly, will these people ever stop huffing their own farts? This site is so full of itself sometimes. Are all of you guys really THAT engineer to the degree that you act like it on this site? Are we really going to celebrate a new marketing term to sell the idea of knowing more than one thing back to engineers? Like, hey, what if, hey maybe what if it was a good idea for people to know more than just the very narrow domain that we slot them into. Like, they could read books and things, and, have different competencies, and not necessarily approach every problem from the perspective of the STEMMIEST GOONIEST engineer ever. Maybe they could look at the same problem from different perspectives, instead of just steamrolling over all the others in a mad race to be the most engineeringest engineer that ever engineered, the kid that was building radios in his garage, getting stomped on by the kid that was writing linux kernel modules in diapers or some shit, all of us clambering over eachother to engineer harder. And when something goes wrong, the problem was you didn't engineer hard enough-- don't worry, there are ten or twenty brilliant engineers here who will be able to point out your engineering mistakes. Maybe we should try to understand how we have accepted and profited from a society that increasingly only wants you to know how to do one thing, and that thing is engineering. Maybe even of the amazingly talented engineers on this site-- and I know there are truly many-- it is true that though engineering is what society will currently pay them for, it is not what society needs most of them. Maybe in fact it is paying them mostly to keep their heads down and not think, to work on smart fridges and disposable scooters and giant vacuums that suck up all your data and package it into a CDO. Maybe we all need to read a fucking book once in a while, and maybe that means we need to pay people to write the books so that we have something to read. Here's a shocking idea, maybe some of those writers have multiple competencies too, maybe some of them would actually make amazing engineers-- but actually society needs them to write more than it needs them to engineer. It needs to pay them to write. It needs to pay shitty writers long enough for them to get good as much as it needs to pay shitty engineers. That's what it means for something to be a real profession and not a hobby for dipshits, it means society agrees to pay you without you having to beg. Maybe we don't need comments, maybe we need fucking books. Maybe we don't need headlines, maybe we need stories. And everyone always has a take. Everyone always has a fucking take. Go shove your take. We're living in a fucking take machine here. Maybe without all this shit, we are plowing forward into a future we don't understand-- towards goals we didn't choose-- because we get paid and hey, we're good at it. We're good engineers. We make thing work. We make thing go fast. You wanna build something, you wildcard piece of shit, build a way to pay other jobs what they're worth instead of finding new ways to overpay engineers to build fucking Skynet / The Matrix / The Metaverse.
• paulpauper 4y ago
  Isn't this the jack of all trades?
  • voidhorse 4y ago
    Yes, I think the article's goal is to rebrand the jack in a more positive light. "jack of all trades" takes on a generally negative connotation when you recall the rest of the phrase "...master of none". Personally, I think one can become a master of a few things and a jack of many if one taps into the marvelous power of analogy and free association. It's literally a super power of the human brain that few people utilize. We're not meant to think linearly in most cases. Linear thinking is a necessary evil when solving already prescribed and well understood problem and a prison and barrier in all other cases.
    • stevelini 4y ago
      The rest of the phrase is "jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."
    • sprkwd 4y ago
      Full quote is: “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”
  • readthenotes1 4y ago
    my great-granddaddy used to praise someone saying "you can't hook 'em up wrong"
    • newshorts 4y ago
      Your great-granddaddy sounds like a very smart man. I think this phrase speaks volumes about the value of these folks (and not just in the startup world). Even in large companies there are opportunities for improvement everywhere. Once we identify something of interest, wildcards are the folks I can rely on to help prove things out. They are versatile, autonomous and comfortable with ambiguity. Once the system is up and rolling, it’s time to put in the maintainers and move on. That’s pretty much the game. The trick, in a big company, is the opportunities usually lie in someone else’s “territory”. Relationships become hugely important, something I’m sure your great-granddaddy had no trouble with :)
• kthejoker2 4y ago
  As a wildcard person, one thing not mentioned is they need to be complemented by at least one type A, no-nonsense delivery manager who can block their say-yes-to-everything attitude, help them prioritize and focus, and ensure the "boring stuff" like test suites and status reports are flowing. Together this tandem can do truly great things.
  • robmerki 4y ago
    This is a superb point. I’m going to add something like that to the article.
    • whywhywhywhy 4y ago
      Think it points more to the false belief that the “Individual Contributor” path has to stop at the start of the “Manager” path when the reality is it can surpass it.
    • lytefm 4y ago
      Yes! The problem with being a „can-do everything problem solver“ is that I get overloaded with tasks from all over the organization whenever has a question or wants to get something working quickly. While helping everyone with whatever comes up seems nice, it's not the most valuable way to spend my time. At first, I was annoyed by the „everything goes through the product manager“ - mantra, but now I agree that having someone to filter and prioritize incoming tasks is crucial.
  • Brian_K_White 4y ago
    Not entirely invalid, but still, god save me from yet another manager who thinks they are the real source of value.
  • fuzzfactor 4y ago
    >they need to be complemented by at least one type A, no-nonsense delivery manager And these managers need to report to them, not the other way around. Truly great things either way, but an order of magnitude more accomplishments which is noticeable. Kind of like a real rock star who is the one that hires the manager, even though the manager will be the one outlining and scheduling the grueling tasks for the performer, which the performer will adhere to as if the manager was his actual boss, except with none of the disadvantages.
• moralestapia 4y ago
  What word could be the opposite of wildcard in this context?
  • klysm 4y ago
    Deep specialist? I’ve heard a software eng refuse to work with anything that wasn’t made by Microsoft because it would be counterproductive to his career as a msft specialist. I guess he did have an argument but oh boy I cannot relate in the slightest
• dax77 4y ago
  This is targeted at a would-be wildcard manager, but for those of you who identify this way, how do you describe this skillset? I’m a combination product manager, data engineer, strategy consultant, and UX/UI designer. While everyone I’ve ever worked with sees that I really am capable across those roles in time, it’s been challenging to convey the breadth of expertise to a hiring manager, without seeming quite arrogant (Mr. “I can do anything”).
  • still_grokking 4y ago
    > how do you describe this skillset? Simply as: Software developer, worth his salt. (The other side of this spectrum is likely called "code monkey", in case the base role is in software development).
  • synu 4y ago
    You can describe yourself as open to help wherever you can, and then give diverse real examples.
  • RHSman2 4y ago
    My personal experience is being in product management. This is where you can really show your divergent thinking. It has the most variance and so many rubbish product managers!
  • Ehh_01 4y ago
    Lmao exactly I had a job interview yesterday and I think the interviewer did took me as arrogant and did everything he could to shoot me down and even told me that I don't have "the thing" in me, which kinda drained me for the day but is funny to be in such a occurence where the last 3 years I got promoted each year and in my current company I got promoted after only 6 months from employment start. But yea it is difficult to exactly reply on what I do, while I basically do the job of 3-4 departments until things are sorted and fixed and currently in the day to day basis, so yea that hits home a lot.
  • riekus 4y ago
    I identify myself with the wildcard person. I would adjust my resume to lean more towards the hiring position. After hirin they get to know the swiss army knife.
• sixhobbits 4y ago
  In my experience many more people self-identify as having these traits than people who actually do. See also Dunning-Kruger effect.
  • anonyme-honteux 4y ago
    Isn't that because it's our true nature as human beings? We used to be survival specialists knowing the basics of lots of things. Those who didn't didn't survive. Then division of labor kicked in and it's both a blessing and a curse
• neilv 4y ago
  Top Gun (1986) already defined "wild card" people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUc3u9cR2Q&t=2m4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUc3u9cR2Q&t=2m4s Rule-breakers, unpredictable, mess up, you don't know whether you'd want to go into battle with them. Hopefully, you get a Hollywood ending, in which they turn out to be 10x performers who save the day.
• doctor_eval 4y ago
  Great article, reminds me of someone I know. One quibble, > If your Wildcard is a Product Manager, their team will ship feature-complete products on time, but without the neatly organized armada of JIRA tickets or burn-down charts you wished to see. The friction of keeping things organized is less stimulating than the instant feedback of just doing the work. “Just doing the work” is the point. The fact that the work can be finished without JIRA tickets and burn down charts is because those things are stupid ways to manage product development, not because Wildcards get shit done. The problem with JIRA in particular is that it encourages a focus on tasks rather than goals, and so the tasks become the goals.
  • klysm 4y ago
    To reference a recent post, such things are not the “blue light” of writing software. They have no value
    • doctor_eval 4y ago
      I hadn't read that post, so I went and looked for it, and you are exactly right! I'm going to have to bookmark that one.
  • RHSman2 4y ago
    Me. I ask myself is it a good thing or a bad thing. Good thing: shit gets done Bad thing: every other person I work with is not a wildcard and really works well under well designed, product management/software processes. If I could invent anything, it would be a disassociative state where I could just download brain ideas (completed)
    • doctor_eval 4y ago
      I think your experience is common (it certainly resonates with me) so I’m certainly not trying to contradict you when I say that I think there exist tools to help with the problem you mention - but JIRA is not one of them. These days, I work on the basis that managing the backlog is actually the management problem that needs solving. With an appropriate tool (I like ProductBoard), I can group together related issues, put my notes on them, and assign them to another developer. That helps them keep the blue light on too. Most so-called product management tools seem to think that a bunch of cards on a kanban board is all we need. But if the problem was that easy, nobody would have a problem.
• arabello 4y ago
  I find myself in this description since forever, but I still can't figure out how to really take advantage of it: it's not always possible to behave like this in your daily job and in your personal life you typically spend a lot of mental energy to understand what to do instead of doing. I fear to end up with a lot of skills and potential unused. It also reminds me of the Scanner people introduced by Barbara Sher in her book https://www.amazon.com/Refuse-Choose-Interests-Passions-Hobbies/dp/1594866260 https://www.amazon.com/Refuse-Choose-Interests-Passions-Hobb...
  • jasonkester 4y ago
    still can't figure out how to really take advantage of it Demonstrate that you can build and ship entire products from scratch. Get a bunch of them out in the wild and make sure everybody knows that you built every piece. Shipping things is a vanishingly rare thing these days, so it's valuable. There are companies full of amazing engineers who are all sitting around blocked waiting for backend to give them the API endpoint or the designers to finish tweaking the button. Meet the person running that company and he will hire you to start this afternoon building the thing they actually want built, but can't because these clowns can't ship the last thing.
  • fuzzfactor 4y ago
    >I fear to end up with a lot of skills and potential unused. The sooner you can achieve a lot of different unused skills & potentials, the better you can end up with fewer of them in disuse.
• synu 4y ago
  I tried hiring on these traits in the past, one challenge there is that almost everyone self-identifies as this kind of person (and it’s probably even true, to an extent.) It’s hard in the end to evaluate effectiveness of T-shaped people across a wide spectrum of potential tasks, but I am curious if others have figured it out.
  • neilv 4y ago
    Might be easier to hire people who show technical strength at something, demonstrate picking up something else to some degree, and (most importantly, IMHO) are up to functioning as part of a team. We need people motivated by helping the team achieve success, not only looking good on their individual metrics and deliverables. Everyone adaptively focused on the collective goal can be so much more easily and efficiently aligned with team success. If someone seems to think like a team member, and apparently can pick up multiple things, at that point, I might just ask them what they think about the role I'm starting to imagine for them. (I'm thinking like an ideal-ish startup here, because other kinds of organizations in general usually seem too inefficient to bother worrying about whether some person can pick up new things as they're needed.)
    • Jensson 4y ago
      > Might be easier to hire people who show technical strength at something Yeah, hire for intelligence and curiosity. An intelligent and curious developer probably studied algorithms to a useful level, if you don't understand them well you either aren't smart or you lack the curiosity to look into new topics. A generalist developers who isn't even at that level in their subjects isn't worth their salt, I'm not sure why anyone would want those. A person who mainly knows different frameworks like rewact, angular, spring, mongo, sql and rails isn't a generalist, they are just your average specialist web developer, hire them if you want to maintain web stuff but not for anything interesting.
      • neilv 4y ago
        I think your argument might be interpreted as encouraging Leetcode interviews, which I'd disagree with.
• lokimedes 4y ago
  This is me, this is how I generate value as a full-blown ADHD case. I wonder if there’s a correlation? To add credibility in a corporate setting I have somehow achieved a fearsome combination of Physics PhD, MBA and 25 years of wildcard software development / entrepreneurship. That, combined, legitimizes why I’m allowed to be the wildcard. How have you others managed to be this deep generalist in a specialist’s world?
  • captainkrtek 4y ago
    I relate to this with my ADHD as well. I work for a certain cloud provider, and made my name by ambulance chasing both on my team and company-wide for interesting problems. Turned debugging complex networking/systems/security/etc. issues, regardless of my day to day role, into my “specialization”. My actual role is still as a software engineer on a team in the networking domain, so it works nicely. Over the years has been a challenge to balance ad-hoc engagements with work/life balance, but last couple years I’ve figured it out nicely.
    • exmadscientist 4y ago
      Remember also that "ADHD" is more complicated than a binary off-or-on thing. I've never been diagnosed with ADHD and doubt I would be if specifically evaluated for it, but I have another diagnosis that comes with "ADHD-lite" behavior as part of its usual phenotype. It originates from a different place (as far as anyone knows) but it sure looks pretty similar. So what I'm saying is, you should think of "ADHD" as a lens through which you can choose to view yourself and your brain. Some things might fit or describe you well, other things will not, regardless of "diagnosis" or lack thereof. And that's normal. Make use of the conclusions and techniques that work for you and make your life and the lives of those around you better, and forget about the others. That's all anyone can hope to do. (You'll need a diagnosis should you want meds, though.)
      • captainkrtek 4y ago
        Definitely agree, and to clarify I do have a diagnosis (and take medication). I don’t view it as a condition per-se, just part of who I am, as well as something that makes life interesting.
• SpeedilyDamage 4y ago
  Don’t you kind of have to be this person if you want to found a startup? To me this just describes a founder. If you’re not a founder and you’re putting this kind of energy into your job, I hope you at least have substantial equity, because otherwise you’re being taken advantage of. Know your worth! Also if you think this is you, it probably isn’t. There isn’t an “engineering” wildcard or a “marketing” wildcard, the whole point is that these people do everything.
  • synu 4y ago
    You could still work on diverse things, but do it within your normal work day. I don’t think being a jack of all trades necessitates overwork or being taken advantage of (though it certainly could, but so could a deep expert who doesn’t have a diverse skill set).
  • anonyme-honteux 4y ago
    I don't think so, many people have a wide array of skills and interests, but none of them is business related. Are they being taken advantage of? Sure, most people are being taken advantage of, that's the system we live in, it's called capitalism. But in rich countries that often still leaves enough to have a good life.
  • robmerki 4y ago
    Many people who I met while writing this article told me they don’t want the full blown responsibilities of being a founder. They just like doing lots of different things. But ultimately, you’re right.
    • fuzzfactor 4y ago
      >Imagine being involved in everything a company does. Schipplock has a good imagination, realistic, too: >As someone already commented, it‘s a recipe for a burn-out. But doesn't burn out the real wildcard CEO material. For this person it's not wild to go beyond a recipe, it's common. A lower-performing CEO who's only involved in less than everything a company does, limits the company to achieveing less than everything it could. These are the ones most threatened by a wildcard operator at any level, and that trepidation will trickle down until making contact with the threat in a neutralizing way. Poisoning the chain of command against comprehensive problem-solving all the way down.
• BarryMilo 4y ago
  Any other wildcards here finding themselves bored by the strategic shortcomings that come with a lack of understanding of how things work? i.e. when bosses don't understand the breadth of their ignorance? I've been considering becoming a CTO for this very reason but I'm not sure it would solve the problem... ?
  • braingenious 4y ago
    Yeah, as my username suggests my name is byron and I’m smarter than anybody on the planet (jenius-level) I am so glad that others have finally came up with a word to describe my beauty
  • travisgriggs 4y ago
    This has been my frustration in my career. I end up with a “manager” attached to me. To the corporate side, it looks like he’s Batman and I’m Robin. But really only if Batman were having constant stage “asides” where he plugged Robin for strategy, to explain things so he could reshape them, seek direction advice, etc. At 52, I tire of it. I’ve toyed with feeling out the switch to CTO/management, but I think I’d just suck at it (low self esteem?) and/or go crazy. I like being a “wildcard” because I like getting stuff done. As near as I can tell, management types thrive in a culture akin to front seat passengers that constantly network with each other about what their drivers get done, giving mostly pointless advice/direction, and taking credit for where the cars end up. Unless it doesn’t end well, then it’s the drivers fault. They live in a world where they watch others get stuff done.
• Brajeshwar 4y ago
  You will like this one. Ken Coleman[1] mentioned the term “Intelligent Override” at a Podcast[2] about Mentors and Leadership with Ben Horowitz on Sep 28, 2022 (looks like a re-run). The idea of someone going beyond the norms, systems and processes, rules and regulations to make things work better. Look out for People who can do “Intelligent Override.” Most companies don’t have many people like that. People who can go through the side door to get things done the right way - to get a customer, to solve a problem. A brilliant intellect can anticipate which turns lead to treasure and which lead to certain death. Most people are just running to the entrance of (say); the “new investment that promises more than the market” maze, or the “crypto money” maze, without any sense for the history of the industry, the players in the maze, the casualties of the past, and the innovations that are likely to move walls and change assumptions. 1. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-coleman-1464922/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-coleman-1464922/ (I think) 2. https://a16z.com/2018/07/12/mentors-mentees/ https://a16z.com/2018/07/12/mentors-mentees/
  • still_grokking 4y ago
    > The idea of someone going beyond the norms, systems and processes, rules and regulations to make things work better. An INTJ personality. > Most companies don’t have many people like that. INTJs are very seldom. ~2% of the general population. But whether INTJs map well to what was described as "wildcard" I'm not sure. It was more of a ISTP or ESTP type, I guess. https://www.truity.com/page/16-personality-types-myers-briggs https://www.truity.com/page/16-personality-types-myers-brigg...
    • lytefm 4y ago
      I'd say INFJ would fit the wildcard description more than INTJ. But that's just my own small-sampled observation and me reading a bit about these personality stereotypes.
      • still_grokking 4y ago
        INFJ doesn't match with the described "wildcard" in any way, as I see it. (And regarding INTJs it's only the "T"). > Introverted: INFJs are energized by time alone Matching a "wildcard"? Rather no. To have many hats you need to be flexible and open with people. Otherwise this won't work out. Introverts don't like "jumping ship". The "wildcard" on the other hand is good at exactly this, and likes it actually. > iNtuitive: INFJs focus on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details Matching a "wildcard"? Quite a strong no. To "get shit done" you need to focus on the practical side of things, facts and details, not the concepts behind them. Also you need a strong "good enough" attitude, something which someone who is concerned with the big picture and the abstract / theoretical ideas behind that is usually not good at. Philosophizing about shit doesn't get shit done. > Feeling: INFJs make decisions based on feelings and values Matching a "wildcard"? Also quite strong no. To get shit done, and be at the same time good in many practical things, you need "thinking" rather than "feeling". Values and feelings (especially of others!) don't mater much when you need to execute an urgent task quickly. It's more like "shot first, ask questions later". Someone who is concerned about the feelings of others would have a hard time to do that. > Judging: INFJs prefer to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible Matching a "wildcard"? Also quite sure not. The described "wildcard" likes to jump in head first. That's the opposite of "planed and organized". The article even mentions explicitly that "wildcards" are not well organized usually without the help of others. See further: https://www.truity.com/personality-type/INFJ https://www.truity.com/personality-type/INFJ (And compare there with the previously proposed personality types.)
• DocTomoe 4y ago
  In my time, we called them "allrounders".
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• thaumaturgy 4y ago
  17 years ago, there was a popular essay about this sort of person, and the label at the time was "Free Electron": https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ https://randsinrepose.com/archives/free-electron/ Before that, they were known as "generalists", autodidacts, polymaths, etc. The thing is that pretty much any clever person that's easily invested in novel things can become one of these people, so this label isn't reserved for people who are generalists, it is reserved for people who are not specialists. If you care about things like income and career progression, do not let yourself become one of these people. They aren't valued, and it doesn't take a lot of staring at job postings or talking to hiring managers to figure out why. Well-run organizations -- that is, organizations that can afford to pay good money for talent -- have clearly defined roles for people, and need only a few generalists to handle the nitty-gritties of cross-department communications and management. The organizations that most need generalists are the ones that are constantly struggling to get their crap working right, so they need people who can do a little bit of everything, and as a consequence, they also can't afford to pay such people a lot of money. It is much easier for a specialist to argue their value than a generalist. I believe there was a frontpage "Ask HN" about this today, probably why this article was posted now. If however you can decouple happiness and satisfaction from income, and chasing novelties makes you happy, then by all means, keep doing what you love. You'll just never make the same kind of money as the person that knows Kubernetes backwards and forwards and not much else.
  • hartator 4y ago
    Or they run their own business.
  • lokimedes 4y ago
    It works just fine for me. Even the best operations wants to stay competitive, and I have yet to meet a CEO with less ambitions than the org can handle. That is where we Wildcards thrive. I build the departments we don’t have, make the prototypes the developers says are impossible (or unattractive technically), prove the business models that yikes the existing sales organizations as they are misaligned with common practice and so on. That said, you must be sellable as a Generalist/Consultant/Fixer. Most people who try to go the Generalist route fails as well. And what the article fails to mention, is the hidden set of skills you need in addition to be valued in this odd position.
• schipplock 4y ago
  > Hire a Wildcard to Get Sh*t Done That is the title on their frontpage. Probably made by a Mädchen für alles (literally, "girl for everything"). I don‘t think you want to be the Passepartout of a corporation. It‘s rewarding at first, but the longer you try to fulfill that role, the more you will be exhausted. Imagine being involved in everything a company does. As someone already commented, it‘s a recipe for a burn-out.
• xlii 4y ago
  > Furthermore, Wildcards thrive with new tasks and suffer from repetitive ones. They also have a hard time staying outwardly organized. That’s an ADHD signature. I’d say huge chunk of article describes “managed” ADHD. I have an argument against having a chaotic wildcard m. It had been imprinted into me that (from management perspective) consistency of result is more important than its brilliance. I.e. it’s better to have consistent low performer than performer who produced great results from time to time. In general, I think it is true, but experience in IT shows that low performers can’t achieve breakthroughs, so at least few chaos bringers are a healthy choice.
  • klysm 4y ago
    Something I’ve seen repeatedly is that chaos bringers are expected to fit into the consistent results bin in a rigid process when it might be more effective to lock them in a room with a hard problem for a month.
    • tormeh 4y ago
      I’d expect adhd peeps to work best in a rapidly shifting environment full of emergencies. Being locked in a room for a month with the same problem is not my idea of a fun time.
      • klysm 4y ago
        If the problem is super interesting and involves a bunch of learning and novel problem solving, it would be a pretty fun time for me. Perhaps just for two weeks though, a month might be too long.
• nigerianbrince 4y ago
  How Wildcards Thrive: * things every single software developer likes How Wildcards Suffer: * things every single software developer hates What Wildcards Need: * things every single software developer needs What a snake.
  • Jensson 4y ago
    That isn't true, most developers prefers not to be pressured while some people just can't motivate themselves without the thrill.
  • leftbit 4y ago
    Don't think so. For example some devs I know just love following an elaborate development process with as many quality gates as possible. Some like to glue as many complex frameworks together into a solution as possible. Some just love to do the same things the same way again and again. Wildcards don't.
  • fuzzfactor 4y ago
    replace <every single software developer> with <every single natural-born software developer>
• nraynaud 4y ago
  I now literally have an emergency contract with a client. If their developer can’t do it, they call me. On the other hand I recently got fired from a code monkey job for lack of sustained productivity.
  • klysm 4y ago
    Not much to go off of here but similar experience as someone with ADHD
• klysm 4y ago
  This seems like a pretty solid description of executive function in folks with ADHD.
• rendall 4y ago
  I think that's all of us, really. I'm reminded of Heinlein's quote "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."
  • SeriousM 4y ago
    Haven't read something so true for long time. We're so much into "fake specialization" that we don't recognise it anymore. Learn making Musik, talk to people, draw something, use your body! One doesn't need to be an expert yet can use what he/she got!
  • Shorel 4y ago
    Easier said than done. For example, that's what Elon Musk believes he is. He has enormous amounts of money to back his ideas, and then you have seen the results, mostly is just manipulation and other people actually do the things.
    • uwagar 4y ago
      he could sure improve on his fashion. all billionaires can
    • goldenchrome 4y ago
      The number one critique I’ve heard of Elon Musk is that he “doesn’t actually do the things himself”. Yeah, that’s what a business is. That’s what a salary is for. To pay you to do things for other people. He’s good at getting the smartest people to work harder than they’ve ever worked before by presenting them with interesting problems.
  • uwagar 4y ago
    bit biased towards waging war or being a soldier.
• alganet 4y ago
  Just remember: the article is a generalization. There are many in-betweens and people present much more variation in real life scenarios. In IT specifically, there is a high level of cross-pollination between different areas. Anyone with enough years invested in the industry will have some degree or another of wildcardness to its toolbelt. Willingness to play the role or hire for it will also vary considerably. Compared to other industries, IT is very young and it is still very much possible to be a specialist in more than one thing (just because many of these things haven't fully matured yet). That's considerably harder on areas with a broader legacy such as biology or physics.
• LAC-Tech 4y ago
  My old boss was one of these. Everything from coding to architecture to fixing laser printers to emotional outlet for the finance team (finance really had issues). I would want him on my team without hesitation, and 100% would never want to try and do all the things he does.
• schappim 4y ago
  Most folks are familiar with the saying: "A jack of all trades is a master of none". They might not be familiar with the complete saying: "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."
• Havoc 4y ago
  Now for the real challenge: Finding someone who doesn’t believe their that person
• travisgriggs 4y ago
  Hmmm. Might make this my new self appointed title. Though I’m not giving up “Engineering Jester” which I lobbied for years to have and finally got.
• nextlevelwizard 4y ago
  Something about this feels "horoscopy". Meaning most people who read this will think "that's me!". I wonder if that is the intent.
  • corobo 4y ago
    Is that accurate? If so there's way more wildcard types on HN than I've bumped into. I need to move to somewhere more wildcard heavy! When this article says wildcard I think "that's me!" because I do anything from web dev (actual role) to sysadmin (preferred role) to IT security to GDPR compliance to billing clients to looking for new clients to project management to hiring to data admin to research and development (my 2nd last job qualified for a government grant for this one haha) to .. I've not yet been asked to do something I couldn't at a minimum do a "yeah that will do for now cheers" job on. You might not want me setting up your Kubernetes production cluster (yet), but a prototype or test net? Come back in an hour boss. The list goes on. I can also plan, direct, shoot, edit, promote videos and podcasts too but it's been a while. I'm not saying match the skillset but does everyone saying "that's me" have a skillset that looks like someone just picked what to learn by rolling dice? That's what I'm picturing when I identify myself as the wildcard person described in the article.
    • nextlevelwizard 4y ago
      The list you give is very much what I consider normal software developer job (only even a bit wildcard-y is the billing). Any competent developer should be able to write web stuff, maintain their machine and handle setting up and maintaining servers, they should know about common security problems in the kind of product they are developing and GDPR compliance is pretty much a TODO list of data management features. It is not like you are developing software today and tomorrow working in the kitchen making cakes and yesterday you were laying some asphalt. I could give anyone of in my team task to prototype Kubernetes cluster. It is just normal computer stuff, but with a new/different tool. It is still very much under the same scope as other skills they need to be able to do their job.
      • corobo 4y ago
• mito88 4y ago
  non multa, sed multum
• wwilim 4y ago
  Full-stack employee
• ppterodactyl 4y ago
  Interesting book on this: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
• ppterodactyl 4y ago
  Interesting book on this topic - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.
• sethammons 4y ago
  An existing term for an unpredictable or uncontrollable person, usually in a potentially negative way. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/wild-card https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/wild...
• mclightning 4y ago
  I was that guy for some 5-6 years in earlier years of my career. It doesn't pay well. Job security is non-existent. You won't get visa sponsorships. Your only way out is to build your own startup/product. It is too far out of the regular career spectrum, and you face even open criticism in interviews for this sometimes. So, I stopped. I am an expert Frontend Engineer now. I get senior roles without even a proper interview. I pass all interviews like it is small talk. My job security is much better. Downside? I cannot make a full-fledged side project anymore. I just realized this recently when I started building one and realized how much I had to re-learn again.
  • d0100 4y ago
    > I am an expert Frontend Engineer now I wonder how much you know more than a Fullstack Engineer? I ask because I am a generalist "fullstack" and want to know what kind of things an "expert" should know in the frontend that would make them unable to do fullstack personal projects From my POV, unless you are working on very new tech like WebGl, Wasm, etc, everything else frontend is pretty much resolved. Would "expert" mean the breadth of knowledge on frontend frameworks? Writing JS compilers? Ajax?
    • PainfullyNormal 4y ago
      I'm also interested in this, but I'm more interested in what you need to say and do to convince other people you're an expert. > everything else frontend is pretty much resolved Has it? The technologies will change again. Pretty soon, if I have to guess. What's valuable here are the concepts that are universally applicable and have been since it was called client programming in the 70s: state management, rendering, API integrations, architecture.
      • mclightning 4y ago
        > to be an expert You should be able to offer solutions to problems impromptu. You should be dependeable in a wider-group meeting involving business or other competencies to represent what does the frontend say about it. This means having knowledge and experience to offer solutions without googling. Beyond that, you also need to be on top of the latest (not the newest) standards to follow. You need to stay up-to-date and filter through the waterfall of sh*t trends in the industry, to know what's actually relevant. While doing all of that, you need to maintain your past/fundamental knowledge...nitty gritty details, to help your colleagues. You need to do all of this while (most likely) being representative spokesperson/front for a frontend project at your day job.
• Tade0 4y ago
  I'm on my second year in a project where I'm nominally a "front-end developer", but actually doing all types of stuff. I'm not really a wildcard person - my friend is and he arranged for me to take his place in this project. Honestly I'm having fun. Front-end is generally low in the corporate hierarchy and it feels good not to be talked down by anyone for a change.
• beefield 4y ago
  Okay, I admit, that is one of the more accurate descriptions of myself I have seen. I wonder if I could get a tiny bit of career advice here. Currently I basically have a couple of old employers that are quite happy to take me in for a few months a time to do something (financial regulation/risk management of derivatives is a powerhose of things not solved/done well enough) The trouble is, I'd like still to do something else on my career, and I have been flirting a bit with infosec, playing hackthebox etc, and pentesting might be fun. I acknowledge starting an infosec career would be a pay cut, but I am not that worried about that. What I am worried is that I have this nightmare of a infosec job where I spend my time running standard scripts and producing standard reports to customers, instead of this probably naive idea of getting to really scratch my head and hack around new problems (obviously some reporting is unavoidable) Is it possible to avoid the nightmare, if yes, how? Or should I just be happy with my current contracting gigs?
• jeffrallen 4y ago
  I was this person on a team once. My boss called me the "free range chicken". I think it was a compliment...
• _8j50 4y ago
  Brethren, this is I. In a $bigcorp this is a problem because a lot of people don't want problems solved. Instead of being glad a problem is solves they will get pissed you stepped on their toes. Something that takes maybe 30min for me to do, some person/team expects me to wait weeks, months or years for them to do it. Problem is, I am not in IT-proper,devops or SWE. I work in security so "problems" are stuff that can land us on a news headline so I do piss people off and fix stuff. Interviews are also hard. They try to put me in some bucket and it is difficult. If I mention something I had to do to get something done, suddenly they think that's all I should do. I am on my second job right now(in a row) where they had to create a new job title for me. But in the last few years, the infosec world has adapted a bit and now there are titles for people like me. "The guy that gets a lot of access and does whatever to catch/stop/respond to intruders". It is also the hardest for people of this personality to appear to be teamworkers. If I collaborate with someone (let's say an incident response task) and I am done with my tasks and they're taking their time, I have to take over their task and finish it. In a bigcorp this is a problem because everyone wants credits and visibility. So for the actual team members I look good but for managers not so much. They see me as a liability unless I am careful and solve problems quietly and let others take credit when possible. But the person whose task I took over or mistake I fixed gets angry, doesn't matter how nicely I do things. This was so not a problem in a startup culture (unless you create work for others). Edit/Unrelated: my account is restricted because apparently I post "low value" content (still not sure if that is a code word or what it means), can you tell if and why the above comment is "low value"?
• sqlpipe 4y ago
  Jeez, I didn’t expect to be perfectly psychoanalyzed this morning…
• n1c00o 4y ago
  I have never read something describing me that perfectly, however I'm unsure if the post is not just too generic. Especially in IT where, unless in gigantic and structured corporations, everyone has to hack something everywhere to get it working. I do consider myself somewhat a "wildcard" dude since I do fit all the points listed in the article, or when I compared myself to friends of mine, where they want roles, categories... But again, I do not want to self-categorise and I would also add that IT helps it.
  • lytefm 4y ago
    > I have never read something describing me that perfectly, however I'm unsure if the post is not just too generic. It is quite generic. Anyone who ever did something outside of the clearly defined scope of their role can be feel as a wildcard to some extend. But I'd say there is some difference between „I'm a software dev but I also do a bit of server admin and occasionally customer support“ or „I'm a software dev, but I also do server admin and occasionally customer support, email campaigns, blog posts, modelling and sales“.
• whywhywhywhy 4y ago
  Plenty exist that are masters of several fields too.
• qprofyeh 4y ago
  This description closely matches that of a hacker.
• anotheryou 4y ago
  Boy does this describe me well! I'm actually best at structuring complexity I think, but all the mentioned tasks would totally be something I do (or have done already). Anyone who wants to hire a wildcard / (technical/UX/AI/senior) product owner? Preferably AI related. I'm in Berlin/remote. The startup I worked for is now part of a 200 people company and it's not my kind of game anymore.
• koonsolo 4y ago
  This closely resembles the value that I can provide to a company, but I want to add something on top of that. A manager can assign me any task, and know that it will get done. When there are blockers, the manager is notified. I think this is a huge benefit.
  • riekus 4y ago
    Same for me, I don't see that high responsibility amoung a lot of my colleagues. I am about to get promoted, and I am durning down the offer since I am currently doing all those wildcard jobs, even outside working hours, because I enjoy them. But when you expect me to do them, it is different and you need to compensate!
• TomMasz 4y ago
  I am one of these people. I got handed a bunch of weird tasks and jobs over the years as a result. I agree with the idea that these people do best in startups where flexibility is needed. In the big company I ended up working at, it held me back from advancement.
• bookofjoe 4y ago
  >Henry Ford had ordered a dynamo for one of his plants. The dynamo didn’t work, and not even the manufacturers could figure out why. A Ford employee told his boss that von Neumann was “the smartest man in America,” so Ford called von Neumann and asked him to come out and take a look at the dynamo. >Von Neumann came, looked at the schematics, walked around the dynamo, then took out a pencil. He marked a line on the outside casing and said, “If you’ll go in and cut the coil here, the dynamo will work fine.” >They cut the coil, and the dynamo did work fine. Ford then told von Neumann to send him a bill for the work. Von Neumann sent Ford a bill for $5,000. Ford was astounded — $5,000 was a lot in the 1940s — and asked von Neumann for an itemised account. Here’s what he submitted: >Drawing a line with the pencil: $1 >Knowing where to draw the line with the pencil: $4,999 >Ford paid the bill. From: https://superintelligence.fandom.com/wiki/John_von_Neumann_(quotes_and_anecdotes) https://superintelligence.fandom.com/wiki/John_von_Neumann_(...
  • arantius 4y ago
    Is this true? I've heard this story/anecdote before, more generally and not ascribed to any particular person, and to a general big company, not Ford specifically. (Just a general "know where to draw the chalk X" kind of thing.) A search gives me only what I see as lowish reputation sources, like the fandom wiki you linked.
    • kubanczyk 4y ago
      Nah, it goes back to 1908, possibly older: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ By a long shot, it could have also originated from James McNeill Whistler, a painter. > He did not ask 200 guineas for two days’ work; he asked it for the knowledge he had gained in the work of a lifetime. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/01/12/lifetime/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/01/12/lifetime/
  • kubanczyk 4y ago
    Skimming that page: > Von Neumann would carry on a conversation with my 3-year-old son, and the two of them would talk as equals, and I sometimes wondered if he used the same principle when he talked to the rest of us.
• uwagar 4y ago
  these were called jack of all trades?
  • Tempest1981 4y ago
    Hmm, according to the entomology here, it's an insult? I didn't think so. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack_of_all_trades https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jack_of_all_trades > Originally a term of praise (competent in many endeavors), today generally used disparagingly, with emphasis on (implied or stated) “master of none”, as in later longer form jack of all trades, master of none. Also commented: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34159070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34159070 Also Jill: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jill_of_all_trades https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jill_of_all_trades
• khaledh 4y ago
  Beware of this so-called wildcard person, as they are almost always a "tactical tornado"[1]: > Almost every software development organization has at least one developer who takes tactical programming to the extreme: a tactical tornado. The tactical tornado is a prolific programmer who pumps out code far faster than others but works in a totally tactical fashion. When it comes to implementing a quick feature, nobody gets it done faster than the tactical tornado. In some organizations, management treats tactical tornadoes as heroes. However, tactical tornadoes leave behind a wake of destruction. They are rarely considered heroes by the engineers who must work with their code in the future. Typically, other engineers must clean up the messes left behind by the tactical tornado, which makes it appear that those engineers (who are the real heroes) are making slower progress than the tactical tornado. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ousterhout/dp/1732102201 https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Software-Design-John-Ouste...
  • rapnie 4y ago
    From your description and comparing to the article Tornadoes and Wildcards seem to be totally different things to me. You describe the stereotype of the "Hero Programmer".
• shireboy 4y ago
  Yep, that’s me to a tee. I’ve from a young age felt like I was “Jack of all trades, ace of none.” At first it bothered me, but then I realized it could be a strength. I may not get awards, but I can solve all sorts of problems well enough. Do that long enough and you excel somewhat at least on some things. A challenge for me I don’t see listed is I find it hard to empathize with non-wildcards. If I run across an IT person stuck doing something “because that’s how we always do”, or “xyz is too hard to learn”, or unwilling to learn something new, it bugs me. I try to be kind and realize it takes all sorts of people, but I may think mean things about them :). Sometimes I also go too hard for the new and shiny over tried and true.
• forgetfreeman 4y ago
  So having described Adult ADD/ADHD in excruciating detail without ever using the actual terms, now what?
  • riekus 4y ago
    Amen
• tylerdinner 4y ago
  I honestly think 90-95% of Frontend Devs are capable of all this. Maybe not 10 years ago when spaghetti code ruled, but if you got your foot in the door as a FE Dev then you have a portfolio containing examples of almost all this 'wildcard' work.
• anthlax 4y ago
  Does anyone else think this reads like a horoscope? As in, it’s quite likely that this applies to most people reading it to some degree. Not many jobs (at least in my SWE space) are directly linear and require a variety of tasks.
  • zxexz 4y ago
    That was my takeaway. Reading it feels like it describes me perfectly, which is often a dead giveaway for something being horoscope-like IME. I think it mostly describes the sort of people you find at early stage startups. Which isn’t everyone, for sure. I’ve often been described as a “fixer” - you get something working, you build an MVP, etc. then you move onto something else. I’d say that’s at least 1/3 of engineers at a standard startup. But, that’s just my experience!
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• bob1029 4y ago
  I am definitely somewhere on this spectrum. If you find yourself in this bucket, try to add 1 more trick to your repertoire: Patience. For me, this has proven to be a far more difficult lesson than anything in the actual computer system. Sitting quietly and waiting for others to deliberate something important, often across days and weeks, feels like torture to me. Especially, when the answer is so obvious in my own mind and the implications of bad decision making are severe. People are irrational and unpredictable. Waiting for them to see things your way can sometimes take longer than expected. This is not something to be fixed. It is something to be tolerated. Unless you are running a one-man startup, this is unavoidable - Do you want to do the jobs of all your teammates? If you cannot get your way on day 1, do NOT send that salty email right away. Type out a draft, send it to yourself, and then read it the next morning. Consider other perspectives as often as possible. I'd say the most impactful wildcard is one who is also very good at salesmanship. If you can come up with crazy ideas and also convince everyone on the team they are amazing, you are going to be unstoppable. The #1 trick in my estimation is to turn one option into a few options. A carefully-crafted illusion of free will can make a huge difference.
  • leros 4y ago
    Patience is a good advice. I'll also say, it's often important to let people in various functions add their input, even if you can operate all those functions yourself. My super power is being able to understand many aspects of the business (engineering, product, marketing, sales, etc) and hold it in my head all at once. At least to a degree. But enough of a degree that I can make decisions just about instantly in my head that would require most people to have numerous meetings to bring the various stakeholders together to figure out all the related components. It works really well and I can do things very quickly and effectively, but it does often bother people that they're not involved in the process because they're used to having their inputs asked for. Usually what I is parallelize the process. I'll make a preliminary decision in my head, start executing it on, and then in the background, I'll also have conversations with the various stakeholders. Usually, nothing comes out of it, but they get to feel included, and sometimes they do provide valuable input, so it is beneficial too.
• cutler 4y ago
  Sean Parker according to Eduardo Severin in The Social Network.
• mjklin 4y ago
  Growing up it all seems so one-sided Opinions all provided The future pre-decided Detached and subdivided In the mass-production zone Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit more alone
  • peter_d_sherman 4y ago
    No, his mind is not for rent To any god or government Always hopeful, yet discontent He knows changes aren't permanent But change is And what you say about his company Is what you say about society Catch the witness, catch the wit Catch the spirit, catch the spit
• poulsbohemian 4y ago
  The other side of this is that I've met several people over the years who were true world class experts in their fields (one literally wrote the book, the other had her phd in that niche, the third was employee #5 at the company, etc...) where suddenly those entire fields went poof as technology changed. So this is the tradeoff - do you specialize and potentially then have to shift in some new direction as the world change, or do you remain more generalized and thus sometimes have a harder time selling yourself?
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• riekus 4y ago
  I have struggled with this myself for a long time. I feel gratefull for having stumbled upon this article. What i just want to share here is this quote which I heard a couple of years ago and will never forget. Did you know the saying "Jack of all trades, master of none"? Apparently this quote is only half of the full quote, which is. "A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but better then a master of one" -- I also think that a lot of people have a misconception about this kind of person. It is not someone with a big skillset but likely someone with ADHD, this trait, for me comes with HUGE downsides, as in, my biggest wish is to start a startup, but this trait is preventing me to finish almost anything. I have a huge backlog of unfinished side projects, i work on them day/night until I know i got it (meaning i have figured it out, it works, it is possible), and then I lose my interest and start exploring new ideas and testing if these are feasible. I am currently trailing ADHD pills to litterly NOT be this person. And it feels amazing to look forward in planning, be prepared and structured.