One skill is not enough

It takes more than one skill to be useful these days.

Development, communication, writing, interviewing, management, business — these skills don’t do anything by themselves.

Developing what? communicating what? Which business? You need a domain of expertise to apply these abstract skills to.

I can’t communicate what I don’t understand. Nor develop good software in a foreign-to-me domain. Nor run a business without a particular business to run.

Today on On Being, they remarked that the straight-line path to success is outdated. Good grades may open a few doors, but grades aren’t success.

Find many different mentors, take not-normal paths. This is where we get interesting, and where real opportunities emerge.