Summary:
It’s better to have three okay tools than a single, perfect one.
Someone is always better in one particular skill
You will never be the best in the world at any given skill. There will always be someone working harder. There will always be someone with greater genetic gifts, or more luck, or both.
Fierce competition at the top
Most people (in the blue zone) have very little of a specific skill. A bit of work can quickly get you to the top 10% (the green zone). But as you join the elite, it becomes harder and harder to move up, because you are facing competitors who are deeply committed to that skill.
Master a combination of skills
So trying to be the best at one thing isn’t the smartest path to success. Instead, you should put your effort into mastering a combination of skills. The solution is skill stacking, a concept popularized by Scott Adams.
Easier and more effective
This is how skill stacking works. It’s easier and more effective to be in the top 10% in several different skills—your “stack”—than it is to be in the top 1% in any one skill.
Easier to be in the top 10% in two skills
Getting to the top 10% (the green zone) of two skills requires much less work than becoming the best at a single one. And these two curves don’t overlap much, meaning most people who are good at one skill are not good at the other.
Skills should be complementary. Example of a politician.
Ideally, the skills wouldn’t just be unique, but also complementary. Imagine someone who is reasonably good at public speaking, fundraising, speech-writing, charisma, networking, social media, and persuasion. Who is this person? A successful politician.
Example of Steve Jobs
He later combined his various design skills with deep insight about what people want, tech knowledge, a strategic mind, salesmanship, an ability to extract everything from his employees, and entrepreneurial skills. Together, these skills helped him form a company that was focused on advanced technology and beautiful design.
Why complementary skills are better
Here, the two skills go hand in hand. Most people who master one also master the other one. It’s therefore harder to stand out than if you had two skills that are unrelated… The best skills to choose are those that don’t tend to go together, but complement each other well.
Engineering with design, psychology, public speaking, and storytelling
Usually, engineers don’t know much about design or psychology. Some designers know about psychology, but not too much. Very few of these know about public speaking and storytelling — which frequently go hand in hand.