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> Barnum’s first rule: pick the work you’re built for, then aim to be the best at it. Edsger Dijkstra, in one of his letters, giving advice (IIRC) to a PhD stu

> Barnum’s first rule: pick the work you’re built for, then aim to be the best at it. Edsger Dijkstra, in one of his letters, giving advice (IIRC) to a PhD student: "Do only what only you can do." Kind of funny to see one of the greatest computer scientists and one of the greatest public entertainers giving the same advice, but I guess that speaks strongly in its favor.

ahartmetz 5mo ago
For all non-Dijkstra-level people, I guess that means "Do only what you are particularly good at".
fellowniusmonk 5mo ago
I could never do anything, I could talk fancy and bullshit and could come up with all kinds of great ideas as an ideas guy. Nothing useful. So I became a developer and data engineer, and I became really good at it even though, like the protagonist in Gattica (with whom I share other similarities), I had to work twice as hard and spend all my off hours obsessed with it because my nature worked against me. While others with this natural prediliction could spend all their time in type 1 thinking I had to live in type 2. But it was a success, and I found myself becoming an executive at long last on the strength of my technical abilities, and it turns out executives don't actually need to do much of anything and really, outside of maybe some complex CFO roles, executive roles are by far the easiest roles at existing profitable companies. I suspect csuite positions are actually the roles most secretly replaced by Ai already.
- HPsquared 5mo ago
  Generalist jobs are all about that System 2 thinking. I never developed it, so my general power is limited.
- theteapot 5mo ago
  > I could talk fancy and bullshit ... I became a developer and data engineer, and I became really good at it That's a formidable combination. > I found myself becoming an executive at long last on the strength of my technical abilities, and it turns out executives don't actually need to do much of anything and really ... You probably think that because talking fancy and bullshitting come naturally to you.
roncesvalles 5mo ago
I've come to learn that "do only what only you can do" is not great advice at all. It's leagues better to be the 10,000th-best SWE at Meta than the world's best basketweaver. Often doing something super unique is an excuse for shying away from mainstream competition.
- neilyio 5mo ago
  I couldn’t resist a quick Google search for this. “Mary Jackson is a world-famous African-American sweetgrass basket weaver. In 2008, she was named a MacArthur Fellow for her basket weaving.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jackson_(artist)?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jackson_(artist)?wprov=sf... I have to say, that sounds more fulfilling than anything I will ever do. People who become the best at anything are usually truly extraordinary.
  - Aurornis 5mo ago
    Focusing on the best of anything is usually misleading. The deep end of anything almost always has some positives attached to it. The best basketball players make a ton of money. That doesn’t make it a good career option. For more obscure activities it takes an unreal amount of effort and sacrifice to get near the deep end of the pool. I grew up knowing a lot of people who were the best of the best at their sports and poured their life into it, but none of them ended up making it professionally or getting into the Olympics despite a lot of trying. For a hobby or sport it’s more enjoyable if you’re not trying to turn it into something more. Leave it as a relaxing thing you do on the side.
  - roncesvalles 5mo ago
    1. The 2nd-best basketweaver will die in obscurity. 2. The MacArthur Grant, while obviously greatly commendable as an achievement, is monetarily worth less than what the 10,000th Meta engineer makes in one or two years.
- squidbeak 5mo ago
  I think you underestimate just how competitive obscure fields and crafts can be. The world's second-best basketweaver is likely to be painfully aware of their superior rival, and push themselves hard to catch up and surpass them. What you're really arguing is that SWEs are superior to basketweavers. But I wouldn't be so sure. That basket might well be around and admired long after the software's obsolete and gone.
Npovview 5mo ago
These are also survivorship bias cases. The real decision depends on 4 factors of Ikigai.
dartharva 5mo ago
This is also the kind of advice that only sounds good on paper. In reality there is no clear marker of what you can and cannot do well unless you empirically experiment with everything which would take several lifetimes. Modern gurus like Cal Newport advise the opposite, and for good reason.
- mbbutler 5mo ago
  Newport's book on this topic is terribly underwhelming, and I say that as someone who has really enjoyed his other books, blog posts, and YouTube videos. Most of the anecdotes he gives to support his "Career Capital over Passion" have an ambiguous directionality of the causal arrow. For example, the fact that the happiest admin assistants have been at the job the longest does not mean that getting good at being an AA makes you happy with the work. There is an equally plausible explanation that enjoying the work of an AA makes one likely to stay in the job longer. Most of his examples in the book are like this. The place where I think Newport flounders in this area is that, in order to get "So Good They Can't Ignore You", you actually have to be able to put in the time and effort to get good. And the vast majority of people do not possess the self-control and willpower to force themselves to do something they dislike to the level that is necessary to achieve said mastery.
- dd8601fn 5mo ago
  I think the whole conversation sounds silly, from the start. There are 8 billion people on this planet. It just doesn’t make sense.

ahartmetz 5mo ago

For all non-Dijkstra-level people, I guess that means "Do only what you are particularly good at".

fellowniusmonk 5mo ago

I could never do anything, I could talk fancy and bullshit and could come up with all kinds of great ideas as an ideas guy. Nothing useful. So I became a developer and data engineer, and I became really good at it even though, like the protagonist in Gattica (with whom I share other similarities), I had to work twice as hard and spend all my off hours obsessed with it because my nature worked against me. While others with this natural prediliction could spend all their time in type 1 thinking I had to live in type 2. But it was a success, and I found myself becoming an executive at long last on the strength of my technical abilities, and it turns out executives don't actually need to do much of anything and really, outside of maybe some complex CFO roles, executive roles are by far the easiest roles at existing profitable companies. I suspect csuite positions are actually the roles most secretly replaced by Ai already.

HPsquared 5mo ago
Generalist jobs are all about that System 2 thinking. I never developed it, so my general power is limited.
theteapot 5mo ago
> I could talk fancy and bullshit ... I became a developer and data engineer, and I became really good at it That's a formidable combination. > I found myself becoming an executive at long last on the strength of my technical abilities, and it turns out executives don't actually need to do much of anything and really ... You probably think that because talking fancy and bullshitting come naturally to you.

roncesvalles 5mo ago

I've come to learn that "do only what only you can do" is not great advice at all. It's leagues better to be the 10,000th-best SWE at Meta than the world's best basketweaver. Often doing something super unique is an excuse for shying away from mainstream competition.

neilyio 5mo ago
I couldn’t resist a quick Google search for this. “Mary Jackson is a world-famous African-American sweetgrass basket weaver. In 2008, she was named a MacArthur Fellow for her basket weaving.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jackson_(artist)?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jackson_(artist)?wprov=sf... I have to say, that sounds more fulfilling than anything I will ever do. People who become the best at anything are usually truly extraordinary.
- Aurornis 5mo ago
  Focusing on the best of anything is usually misleading. The deep end of anything almost always has some positives attached to it. The best basketball players make a ton of money. That doesn’t make it a good career option. For more obscure activities it takes an unreal amount of effort and sacrifice to get near the deep end of the pool. I grew up knowing a lot of people who were the best of the best at their sports and poured their life into it, but none of them ended up making it professionally or getting into the Olympics despite a lot of trying. For a hobby or sport it’s more enjoyable if you’re not trying to turn it into something more. Leave it as a relaxing thing you do on the side.
- roncesvalles 5mo ago
  1. The 2nd-best basketweaver will die in obscurity. 2. The MacArthur Grant, while obviously greatly commendable as an achievement, is monetarily worth less than what the 10,000th Meta engineer makes in one or two years.
squidbeak 5mo ago
I think you underestimate just how competitive obscure fields and crafts can be. The world's second-best basketweaver is likely to be painfully aware of their superior rival, and push themselves hard to catch up and surpass them. What you're really arguing is that SWEs are superior to basketweavers. But I wouldn't be so sure. That basket might well be around and admired long after the software's obsolete and gone.

Npovview 5mo ago

These are also survivorship bias cases. The real decision depends on 4 factors of Ikigai.

dartharva 5mo ago

This is also the kind of advice that only sounds good on paper. In reality there is no clear marker of what you can and cannot do well unless you empirically experiment with everything which would take several lifetimes. Modern gurus like Cal Newport advise the opposite, and for good reason.

mbbutler 5mo ago
Newport's book on this topic is terribly underwhelming, and I say that as someone who has really enjoyed his other books, blog posts, and YouTube videos. Most of the anecdotes he gives to support his "Career Capital over Passion" have an ambiguous directionality of the causal arrow. For example, the fact that the happiest admin assistants have been at the job the longest does not mean that getting good at being an AA makes you happy with the work. There is an equally plausible explanation that enjoying the work of an AA makes one likely to stay in the job longer. Most of his examples in the book are like this. The place where I think Newport flounders in this area is that, in order to get "So Good They Can't Ignore You", you actually have to be able to put in the time and effort to get good. And the vast majority of people do not possess the self-control and willpower to force themselves to do something they dislike to the level that is necessary to achieve said mastery.
dd8601fn 5mo ago
I think the whole conversation sounds silly, from the start. There are 8 billion people on this planet. It just doesn’t make sense.