Brilliant piece as ever, thanks for sharing your experience during your exploratory phase.Total respect for your polymathic ways and growth mindset!
I've been on a little exploratory phase myself in the past 6 months and I feel pretty much as lost as I did when I got started. One thing that I've had a hard time with is the fact that I don't truly excel in any particular thing. I'm mediocrly good at a lot of things but far from being the top of the cream. This makes me feel like the type of things that I'd want to do are out of reach and the things that do come my way don't interest me any longer. Should I just knuckle down and try to focus on one particular thing and become the best at it?
I have found there are two main features: the intersection you work at and the direction you're going. They don't necessarily work together. The more things you intersect, the more challenging it can be to find a single direction vector. Interestingly this is the same problem as platform companies. Ultimately there needs to be a sharper focus -- structure your skills as a "T" wide on top but deep in one place. That can be hard, but you don't need to be the deepest to provide value. If you find people that are aligned on the same vector, try and work with them as much as possible.
Brilliant piece as ever, thanks for sharing your experience during your exploratory phase.Total respect for your polymathic ways and growth mindset!
I've been on a little exploratory phase myself in the past 6 months and I feel pretty much as lost as I did when I got started. One thing that I've had a hard time with is the fact that I don't truly excel in any particular thing. I'm mediocrly good at a lot of things but far from being the top of the cream. This makes me feel like the type of things that I'd want to do are out of reach and the things that do come my way don't interest me any longer. Should I just knuckle down and try to focus on one particular thing and become the best at it?
I have found there are two main features: the intersection you work at and the direction you're going. They don't necessarily work together. The more things you intersect, the more challenging it can be to find a single direction vector. Interestingly this is the same problem as platform companies. Ultimately there needs to be a sharper focus -- structure your skills as a "T" wide on top but deep in one place. That can be hard, but you don't need to be the deepest to provide value. If you find people that are aligned on the same vector, try and work with them as much as possible.