Forge is Medium's publication on self-improvement, covering career growth, writing, decision-making and work habits.
HN commenters mostly cite its post on becoming the best in the world at something, the source of the skill stacking idea, now members-only.
Hey, I wanted to propose a mindset for thinking about what you should learn, instead of a particular skill or domain. Thinking about what you should learn to benefit your employer is nice, I'd think more about what skill you could learn that would help you most over the next ten years, for job satisfaction, income, life quality, etc. Something fun, which also makes you more valuable in the marketplace, sounds like the way to go. Anyway, having a manager that looks for feedback on stuff like this, sounds like a good problem to have.
I like this article on skill-stacking, might be a frame you think is good, maybe not.
https://forge.medium.com/how-to-become-the-best-in-the-world-at-something-f1b658f93428
Haha, I thought you were satirizing the C vs Lisp article... but no, it's a direct quote! Amazing.
The article on kindness was well worth reading, thank you. It ends
"If you can’t be kind, if you won’t empathize, then you’re not on the team. That team is Team Humanity, where we are all in this thing together. Where we are all flawed and imperfect. Where we treat other people’s point of view as charitably as we treat our own. Where we are civilized and respectful and, above all, kind to each other—particularly the less fortunate, the mistaken, and the afraid."
https://forge.medium.com/its-not-enough-to-be-right-you-also-have-to-be-kind-b8814111fe1?gi=7b430aa08349
OTOH Prepare for the Ultimate gaslighting
"Pretty soon, as the country begins to figure out how we “open back up” and move forward, very powerful forces will try to convince us all to get back to normal. (That never happened. What are you talking about?) Billions of dollars will be spent on advertising, messaging, and television and media content to make you feel comfortable again. It will come in the traditional forms — a billboard here, a hundred commercials there — and in new-media forms: a 2020–2021 generation of memes to remind you that what you want again is normalcy."
https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0
That's a really interesting topic, thanks for sharing this! I've previously written about changing environments (https://forge.medium.com/to-do-better-work-change-your-environment-a27296aabee5?sk=aa89f7e499669ba203db2b95f5b03032), prompts for changing equipment would also be very interesting.
For me, generally pen and paper for preliminary work (e.g., exploring the idea, journaling, taking notes), software and tools like Google Docs/Notion/Airtable for organization and fidelity (e.g., outlining, writing, editing, etc.). Another lens could be analog for chaotic creative work, digital for structured creative work.
The "A's hire A's" observation is interesting, but would result in the opposite effect -- it would lead to Bs managing Cs, whereas I'm talking about a situation where a B is managing a bunch of As.
Having done some more digging after posting this, I think I've found a related concept that I can use to do some more keyword digging. It sounds like "layering" is a strategy that can be used to specfically fight against this problem (https://forge.medium.com/what-to-do-when-you-get-layered-at-work-6751f9a268e2), however this specific problem still doesn't have a name...
Here's a place to start: https://zenhabits.net/lifes-enough-stop-comparing-yourself-to-others/
More practically: https://forge.medium.com/were-all-finding-out-what-enough-is-155a806b9da
Different people think that diminishing returns in a first-world economy starts at $50k/year, $100k/year, $200k/year, or some other number, but whatever one's desired purchasing power, it has zero relationship to how much Bezos or Gates are worth.